Haven
by Battlebarbie117
Summary: I loved Charlaine Harris's southern Vampire mysteries but was majorly disappointed with the last book. So, I decided to write my own story. That way I could end it they way it the way I want to. My story is influenced by Charlaine Harris and her novels but has my own original characters and plots. It is a homage to the series and the genre and I hope people enjoy it as much.
1. Chapter 1

1

I hated the night shift. I hated the bar. I hated vampires. Sure, they hadn't done anything to me per se... but they always brought trouble with them, always.

The moment I walked through the door of Garret's bar, I just knew tonight was going to be one of those nights - and I was right. The first few hours of my shift were fine, I served drinks and bussed tables as usual, but at about 01:30am the shit hit the fan. My back was turned as I refilled the bottle rack, filling the spirit levels and discarding the empties in the glass recycle bin. I had heard the front door creak open over the low hum of conversation and turned to see a broad shouldered man framed momentarily in the doorway by the moonlight. He was unmistakably a vampire. He had the pale skin, the eerily vibrant eyes and that hungry look. He walked slowly and unsteadily towards the bar, limping with every step and slumped down in to one of the vacant stools. He was a vampire alright, but he was in bad shape. Ironically he looked drained, his skin was grey and the dark circles under his eyes were almost black. He was gaunt, but unnaturally so and it made him look ill. He was covered in blood, his hand, his face and his clothes were incrusted with it. He opened his mouth to speak and I could tell that even the small amount of energy it took was costing him. "Garret," he growled in a whisper. "I need Garret".

"He's not here," I answered truthfully. Normally I would have been wary of this man, this vampire, but I was pretty sure he was in no condition to harm a fly - or me for that matter. Besides, I was curious and the bar was full of people. "What happened to you?" I asked taking in his grim countenance.

"Hunters," he replied without elaborating. "Where. Is. Garret?"

I don't know much about vampires, except the fact they exist, but if there is something out there big enough and bad enough to hunt them - it couldn't be good news.

"I don't know where he is. I really don't," I answered, again truthfully. Garret was my boss. If he told me he was leaving early, what right did I have to ask where and why. "Then _you have_ to help me, if you don't I'm dead". The way he said it was almost matter of fact, he was making it clear he didn't have time for idle chitchat with the likes of me. Sensing it would be better not to get on this guy's bad side, I asked "what do you want _me_ to do?" hoping the sooner I helped him the sooner he would leave.

In a motion quicker than I would have thought him capable of, especially in his weakened state, he stood up, lunged over the bar and grabbed my upper arm in a vice like grip. I froze. He lent in close, his face inches from mine and said, "Hide me."

Everyone in the bar was staring at us now. Some looked curious, others worried, but no one made a move. The vampire looked down at the hand that was grasping my arm painfully tight and looked surprised, as if he hadn't realised he was doing it. He glanced around at our avid audience, then loosening his grip slightly and bringing his other hand to my other arm, in more of a desperate gesture than a threating one, added "please." I was starting to think my previous assessment was highly inaccurate and that while clearly badly injured, he was quite capable of harming a fly. Or me for that matter.

"Where?!" I asked incredulously, stepping back out of his grasp as I spoke, silently relieved that he let me. The rest of the patrons seemed to think that the vampire letting go of me was a sign that the danger was over. The tension eased and most people went back to their own conversations, though one or two pairs of eyes still lingered warily on us. They had the measure of the situation better than the others.

He leaned in again, and said in a whisper that was only just audible " I don't have time for this, Garret would help me." I couldn't really think of anything else to do, while he was clearly capable, he didn't seem to want to harm me, so reluctantly I said "You can hide in the back." I really hoped that he was telling the truth about Garret as he was my motivation to grant this stranger sanctuary. If he really was a friend of my boss I knew Garret would want me to help this man; if not, I had just gotten myself involved in a whole mess of trouble.

Trouble, vampires always bring trouble. And that he did.

Literally seconds after the vampire disappeared through the door at the back of the bar, to hide in the store room, six men all dramatically hooded and cloaked filed into the bar. Five of them fanned out around the room standing at strategic points, covering the exits I guessed, while the sixth walked straight up to the counter, to me.

Staring me straight in the face, but talking to the bar at large, he said "Out. Everybody out." I took one step towards the end of the bar before he said, "Not you". I had known they weren't going to let me leave; but it was worth a shot, right? As fast as they could, the patrons of Garret's bar moved in a herd towards the exit without the slightest protest, they must have known something I didn't. A few stragglers glanced back, clearly wrestling with the moral dilemma of saving their own skin, or saving a young woman, but when the cloaked figure said "OUT NOW!" in bark, they lost their nerve and left.

"Where is he?" he growled at me, his hands in front of him on the bar, pressing so hard that he was leaving indentations in the wood.

I knew exactly who he meant, but I decided to play dumb. Sure they would see straight through my act and unsure why I was protecting this unknown vampire I said, "Garrets not here."

"Yes he is."

I had no idea where he came from. I had no idea how he got in with all the exits blocked, but there he stood, Garret, all tall figure looming out from the darkness. He was standing amongst the low tables in the far corner of the bar. He no longer looked like my gruff but friendly boss, he looked like a predator, and for the first time since I had known him I realised, that Garret was by no means human.

"Anna," he addressed me without looking at me, keeping his eyes fixed on the 'man' at the bar. "Take Marcus and leave. Now." It was a command. I assumed Marcus must be the vampire hiding in the store room and headed straight to the door behind the bar. "Leave" was an order I was more than happy to follow.

The store room was awash with gloom. The only source of light was one long shard of moonlight, beaming through the small single window on the back wall. Marcus was nowhere to be seen. Now I was afraid. I didn't know this man, this vampire. He was hungry and injured and hiding in the darkness. I could hear loud noises from the front bar, the smashing of bottles and breaking of chairs. The inevitable fight had broken out. I hoped, I truly hoped, that Garret was alright but I knew I couldn't help him. So I stepped warily further into the store room and peered between the shelves. As I walked slowly through the isles I became aware I was definitely not alone. I heard ragged breathing for the second before muscled arms encircled me. The arms pulled me into the darkest corner of the room and stood with me pressed against the wall by the weight of their accompanying body. I heard rather than saw the door to the store room door open. "Stay here" said Marcus's whispered voice in my ear and I felt the weight of his body lift from me. I heard a stifled gasp, a grotesque snapping noise and the unmistakable thud of a body hitting the floor.

Instantly Marcus was back in front of me. He put both his hands either side of my face and made me look at him. "I know you have no reason to trust me, but we have to go". Even before he had finished speaking he was pulling me by the hand towards the door. "But... what about Garret?" I said pulling against him. Surely there was something he could do?

"We can't help him, we need to leave, I can't protect ANYONE like this!"

He was right. What help could we provide Garret? A measly human and a severely depleted vampire. The only thing we could do for him now was obey his command to flee and so we did.

I will never know how long we ran for, but eventually we found ourselves in a deserted alley way crouching behind a dumpster. We sat in silence for several minutes catching our breath, possibly metaphorically in Marcus's case. I breathed in deeply, savouring the feeling of air in my lungs again. I had never in my life run so far and so fast with such desperation. We had no idea if anyone was still following us or if anyone ever had been, but neither of us could run anymore. I was fit as people go, but I wondered at full strength what powers Marcus possessed.

After what felt like hours, I finally became aware of my surroundings. It appeared to be the back exit of a restaurant and a glowing sign told us that it was a pizza place. I glanced over at Marcus sitting opposite me and for the first time I really looked at him.

He was wearing dark jeans and a black t-shirt with black boots. Before tonight his clothes were probably very nice, but now they were bloodied and dirty and his jeans had a gaping hole at the knee. Marcus, even though he was injured and ill, was very handsome he had brown eyes that were unnaturally bright, almost orange, with jet black irises. His cheek bones were well defined and his angular jaw was textured by stubble that was a tiny bit darker than the brown of his short yet stylishly messy hair.

I watched him as he sat pensively, with a furrowed brow, wondering if I should speak. After a few more minutes of increasingly awkward silence, I asked, doing my best not to sound as if i was accusing him of anything, "Why were they after you?"

"Me?" he said sounding genuinely surprised, "Why would they be after me?"

I paused for a moment thinking of how best to tactfully word my reply, and then said, abandoning pretence, "Well...you're a vampire..."

"Your point?" he asked raising an eyebrow. I didn't need to answer; we both knew what I meant. The silence resumed for another minute or two before he said, "They weren't looking for me or at least not at first, their hunting Alistair."

"Alistair?" I asked perplexed.

"Alistair. The leader of Garrets pack." he said it as if I should know what it meant, but i was confused beyond belief.

"Pack? Pack of what?"

"Lycans... that's werewolves to the likes of you. Garret is a lycan... you didn't know?" My face must have answered the question for me, because he continued, "You really didn't know? Where did you think he went every full moon? Where did you think he went tonight?"

I looked up at the moon in disbelief, my world was opening up pretty fast and I didn't like it.

"You work in a bar. A bar that caters to all manner of supernatural creatures. Did you really think vampires were it? Did you ever look at the people you were serving?" he had a smirk on his face that made me want to hit him, though I wasn't stupid enough to do so. Well what can I say? At least I amuse.

"I hoped," I said after yet another awkward silence. He looked up at me. "I hoped they were it".

"So how did you, someone who clearly is less than enamoured with my kind, end up working in a haven?"

"Haven? What's a haven?" I was at sea once again.

" A haven is a supernatural refuge, where all the supes go to eat and drink in peace and in more serious cases to hide or be healed, it's exactly as it sounds, a haven."

"How I ended up at Garrets is a story for another time, we have to move!" I said suddenly urgent

"What? Why?" I had only just noticed the orange edge to the night sky. We had lingered too long and the sun was coming up. Marcus had noticed too now and looked worried. "Take me somewhere, anywhere. But it has to be now! NOW!"

"Where do you live?" I asked praying I would recognise the address.

"Too far away, come on we have to move!" He sounded frightened; genuinely frightened. His tone made me take pity on him. In this moment he was as scared as I had been. Knowing his life was in my hands I said, "I can't believe I'm going to say this but I'll take you to my place. Let's go!" And we were running once more.

And just like that, can open, worms everywhere.


	2. Chapter 2

2

We made it to my apartment, which was only a few blocks away, just in time. The vampire near enough broke my front door down dashing inside. Even the presence of the weakest only half-risen sun seemed to have further weaken Marcus. I half carried him into my bathroom, as it was the only room without windows, and laid him down on the tiled floor. He was shaking. I closed all the curtains in my house and hastily taped the edges down. I took a moment to breathe and relax. Tonight had been a long night. I had just discovered my boss was a werewolf … a werewolf! I probably didn't have a job anymore as by the sound of it the bar had been trashed and we had no idea how Garret had faired. I was worried about Garret, I was worried about the bar and I was worried about the fact several Werewolf hunters had now seen my face and would, if they lived, no doubt have put me on their list of enemies. I just knew they would be coming for us and I was sure it would be soon.

I went back to collect Marcus who by this point was extremely groggy. "C'mon," I said to him as I tried in vain to get him on his feet, "I can't lift you on my own". I pretty much dragged him to my bedroom and unceremoniously deposited him on the bed. I was going to take off his boots, but what would be the point? The rest of his clothes were as filthy and blood stained as he was. Come to think of it I had a cheek to talk, I may not have been blood stained but I was definitely dirty. As sleeping was out of the question with an unconscious vampire sprawled on my bed, I decided the best alternative was to go for a shower.

I peeled my dirty clothes from my skin and dumped them in the hamper beside the toilet. I had never been more grateful for my electric shower; there was always hot water. I clambered inside, stiff and sore as if I had just done an intensive workout. I let the water wash over me and I watched as the dirt swirled down the drain. I stood engulfed in water and steam for what must have been nearly half an hour enjoying the feeling of being clean and trying to rationalise the night's events. What was I supposed to do now? How long would Marcus be in my house? And how long before this was all over? My gut told me it would be a long time before my life went back to normal. I reluctantly got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around myself. Cursing myself for not having the foresight to bring clothes with me to the bathroom, I tip-toed through the gloomy hall to my bedroom. I peered around the door I had left ajar. As far as I could tell the vampire was still in the land of the dead, for now. I slipped through the small gap careful not to make a sound and crossed briskly to my closet. I grabbed a pair of slim fitting jeans, a vest top, a thin cardigan and a pair of boots; all of which were black. I then moved to the dresser under the window and extracted some underwear. I took my clothes back to the bathroom and hastily dressed myself. I looked in the mirror my long wavy brown hair was still wet; so I scrunched it into a bun on the top of my head and tied it with a band I found on the sink. I realised it wouldn't be until dark that Marcus would rise and I would be able to get answers from him, so I went about doing the house work for no other reason than to keep myself occupied. In the kitchen I did the dishes, cleared the cupboards and put on a load of washing. In the bathroom I cleared the shower drain, washed down the tiles and cleaned the toilet. In the living room I vacuumed and dusted before returning to the kitchen to make myself a long overdue bite to eat. I warmed a micro-meal and ate it slowly at the breakfast bar. Once I had finished I cleared my plate away and went to the living room to watch TV or at least that was the plan. However the moment I sat down I was asleep.

I awoke several hours later, by now it was dark outside. When I sat up, I found myself almost face to face with Marcus, who had clearly been watching me sleep. I gasped in shock and leant back to put some distance between us. Well that wasn't creepy at all. Calming myself I asked "What are you doing?"

"Watching you sleep." He said completely seriously.

"Great." There didn't seem any point in continuing this conversation as he clearly didn't think that hovering over someone while they were sleeping was at all weird, so I changed my line of questioning.

"What time is it?" I asked. The vampire hadn't bothered to turn any lights on so I couldn't see the clock. I supposed that he could see perfectly well in this low light.

"Just after 10," he replied. He must have been a wake for a few hours now as it was winter. He stood up to turn on the lamp beside the couch, before perching himself once more on the edge of my coffee table.

"Are you alright?" I asked him remembering the injuries he had received the night before.

"I'm fine. Thank you."

Now that I looked at him, he did look fine. He was clean, so he must have showered while I slept. Although his clothes were still dirty. His skin, while still pale as you would expect, was no longer grey and waxy. The dark circles around his eyes had lessened and his cheeks looked redder and fuller.

"That's amazing," I said. "How?"

"I have fed. Not on you," he added seeing the expression on my face. "A woman on the street-"

"I don't need the details!" I said quickly. "Is she…?"

"She is fine. And won't remember a thing."

"I'll be right back," I said getting up. I left the living room and headed through the small hall to my bedroom. I needed a minute. I felt silly. For a brief moment when I had awoken I had thought it was only a dream. Only to be brought back to earth with a painful thud. I sat on my bed for a minute or two gazing blankly into the mirror, I looked tired. I knew it wasn't really my biggest concern right now but I brushed out my hair and put a dab of make up on. Sad as it was, I felt better. I looked at the bed sheets expecting them to be covered with dirt and blood, but they were fresh and clean. Marcus had changed the bed. It seemed like a strangely domestic thing for a vampire to do. Maybe he had been bored. I returned to the living room a short time later, calmed and ready to find out what the hell I had gotten myself into.

"I guess we need to talk," I said sitting down on the couch once more. Marcus has seated himself in the chair opposite. He looked very out of place on my bright red lounger. "I guess we do," he conceded.

We sat in silence for a moment. "Where to begin?" the vampire asked himself. Another silence. Finally he said, "Perhaps I should explain hunters first to give my story context". And so he began. "The supernatural world has a ruling body, that we call The Council. They create and uphold our laws. Hunters are their… soldiers; I guess you could call them. They usually hunt in small groups no more than five, and like the council they are made up of mostly vampires and demons with the occasional werewolf or other supernatural." He paused, possibly to let me digest the information. Possibly to collect his own thoughts. Side stepping the whole demon thing, I said "If they only hunt in parties of five, why were there six at Garret's?"

"Well it would seem they want me especially dead," he said with no trace of humour.

"Why?" I asked simply.

"I was getting to that. We have very strict laws about turning humans. Many in the council believe that we should not create what they call half breeds. And that only pure supes should be allowed to live. By pure I mean supernaturals that have been born what they are, not turned." Again he paused.

"So you turned someone into a vampire?" I guessed.

"Not me. And not a vampire. Alistair, I believe it was him. Garret and his brother are Lycans; I received a call from Alistair begging for my help. He said something had happened to his girlfriend. When I arrived at his home, I found the girl mid transformation. She was becoming a lycan. I tried to help her, but as I was doing so several hunters appeared. So I killed them. However they were not alone, more came and killed the girl, they then tried to kill me; this was only an hour or so before we met. Now I believe they are going to arrest Alistair for treason and me as his accomplice. They must have come to Garret's with the assumption I would go there or that he would know where Alistair was."

Listening to Marcus speak was very strange. He had most of the modern colloquialisms down, yet other times he sounded very old fashioned. I wondered exactly how old Marcus was. "So…?"

"So, we need to find Alistair and Garret and try to clear our names." He replied.

"We? We don't need to do anything. This is your mess, yours and Alistair's. I have nothing to do with this!" I was panicking. I didn't want anything to do with this mess of trouble.

"You are in this too, they have seen you. You lied to them and saved my life-"

"Exactly!" I cut across him. "I saved your life! My part is over!"

"What about Garret? I thought he was your friend!" Marcus's temper was rising, I could tell; his eyes were becoming more orange and I could see as he spoke that his fangs were out.

"Look," I said, standing up and stepping as far away from him as I could, whilst still being in the same room. "Garret lied to me…" It was a weak defence.

"Garret cares about you," he said standing up and closing the gap between us is three large strides. The vampire was frighteningly close to me now. "Clearly his affections were misplaced." He was being hurtful now, and I could tell that was exactly what he was going for. "Fine. Bury your head in the sand. But I won't be around to save you when they come knocking and they will." And with that he was gone, in a gust of wind. "I wouldn't need saving if it wasn't for you!" I shouted after him knowing it made no difference and that he was long gone.

I plopped down onto the floor where I stood. I could feel my chest tightening and my eyes beginning to water. I was scared, but the vampire was right. Garret was my friend. I owed him more than this, he deserved better.

But where to start? I far from enjoyed Marcus's company and preferred to be nowhere near him, but how could I help Garret without him? Now I had found my courage, I was even more helpless.

I had so much to think about. I was sure I couldn't trust Marcus, but I needed to find him. It worried me that he knew where I lived and some innocent girl had died because of this council. Was I next? My boss was a werewolf and apparently had feelings for me. I had never known. I didn't know how to feel about that fact especially now I knew he was a werewolf.

All I knew was that my friend was in danger and needed my help. I had no idea where to begin and with no contacts in the supernatural community, I decided the best thing to do was to return to the bar. Maybe Garret would be there and everything would be fine. I doubted it, that would be too easy. More likely I might find some tiny clue that could lead me to Garret, or even Marcus. I had a plan now, and that was a start.


	3. Chapter 3

3

I knew returning to the bar that night wouldn't get me anywhere. It was far too late, anyone could be at the bar and knowing now what Garret's really was, anyone could be lurking in the shadows. I wondered if anyone had noticed that Garret's was closed, as we had a fairly steady stream of customers. I hoped that if the clientele was as permeated with supernaturals as Marcus had implied it was, that word of the nights event would have travelled through the supernatural community and that no one would come by and draw attention to the mess I was sure the bar was in.

I awoke at about 10am the next day. I showered and dressed as quickly as I could. I didn't have time to waste today. Having eaten breakfast and put on some make-up I sat down at my computer. I had research to do. I was tired of feeling at sea and tired of not knowing what was going on. After a fair few hours of surfing the internet and sifting through the fact and the fiction I discovered several things. The first of which I already knew – vampires existed. It appeared that there were several sights where people could arrange meetings with actual vampires. I wondered if any of these sites were genuine as I had been told by Garret that very few humans knew vampires existed and even fewer believed it was true, even if they had met one in person. There was that and the inherent secrecy of vampires themselves; I couldn't imagine many vampires agreeing to the meetings. I also found out that while sunlight was a big no-no for vampires, it appeared that crosses, holy water and garlic, as I suspected, were no more than superstitions. It also appeared, judging by the way Marcus entered my house the night before,that the whole vampires can only enter when invited thing, was bullshit too. I imagined that the old stake to the heart would probably be an effective way of disposing of vampires along with the staple beheading. It would also seem, from the various sites I browsed and the state Marcus was in when we met, that draining or severely depleting a vampire could result in death also; unless they were able to feed. Werewolves on the other hand had much fewer legends and myths to decipher. In fact after hours of research I had gained fairly little knowledge. They may or may not have to turn on the full moon and they may or may not be able to turn at will. What I really needed was to ask an actual werewolf, but that wasn't exactly doable right now, so I had to make do with the interest's meagre offerings. Several legends state that werewolves cannot tolerate silver, in fact most seem to agree that fact is true; however with garlic, crucifixes and most of the other myths about vampire's weaknesses turning out not to be true, I was sceptical that all werewolves were sensitive to silver. Many myths also mentioned wolfs bane, which is actually a plant called aconite, being the only thing werewolves were 'allergic' to, however as far as I was concerned, that was unconfirmed as well.

That evening, more or less informed about my quarry, I headed to Garret's bar. Even though the bar was in comfortable walking distance from my home, I decided it would be better to drive in case I needed to make a quick exit. I really didn't feel like running for my life again. I drove the ten minutes in silence; as I was too tense and worried to listen to the radio like I usually would have. I parked down the alley to the side of the bar, feeling it was best not to attract too much attention to myself.

I walked from my car to the door in about five steps. It was unlocked. In quick strides I moved through theemployee corridor. The closer I got to the front bar the more I could hear the sounds of voices coming from within. Just as I was about to press my ear to the door, it opened.

"What are you doing here, ma'am?"

"I work here!" I said without thinking.

"Well then, perhaps you would like to explain what happened here?" It was the cops. Well fuck.

The police officer was a tall, lean man, with greying brown hair that was more grey than brown. He looked very fit for a man who must have been over fifty. He took me through to the front bar. "Oh my god!" was all I could say. I had known it would be bad, I just hadn't known how bad.

There was broken glass everywhere. It was scattered across the top of the bar and mingled with the blood on the floor. All the bottles that were in the rack on the wall were smashed littering the floor and making it impossible to get behind the bar. All the tables and chairs were over-turned and I couldn't spot even one that wasn't damaged. There were huge gouges out of the wooden floors too, many of which looked like claw marks. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, and just about everything else, was covered in a sticky layer of blood. But where were the bodies? Surely with this amount of blood there must have been at least one casualty last night. Maybe the police had moved them though I doubted it; I didn't think they had been here much longer than I had. They had only just started to set up a crime scene and there were no white lines on the floor.

"Do you know what happened here ma'am?" his tone was very serious.

My first instinct was to lie, I knew I had to. There was no way I could tell them the truth and I never would. I couldn't do that to Garret. I was also sure that were I to tell the police what had happened, whether or not they believed me, I would make even more enemies in the supernatural community.

I put on my frightened little girl face and began. "I… I don't know, I wasn't at work yesterday, and then I came in today and found you here." That was a half truth, I didn't see anything that had happened, but I had a fair idea of what went down. I did my best to cry then said, with fake tears in my eyes, "I need a minute". My ploy seemed to have worked as the cops face softened when he said "Alright ma'am it will be ok, may I take your name?" what was the point in lying?

"It's Anna Norwood."

"Alright Miss Norwood, why don't you go take a seat in the back office and I'll be in, in a minute to question you."

I nodded in a pathetic sort of way and walked shakily to the office. As soon as the door was shut I began looking around. I knew I didn't have a lot of time. I searched the bookcase first, for anything that could lead me to Garret, but found nothing. I then searched the filing cabinet pulling the files out and searching them as thoroughly as time would allow; again nothing. My time was running out, throwing caution to the wind I searched the desk, taking no care of what I was misplacing. There was nothing on it. I can't say I was surprised, what self-respecting werewolf would have something that could prove he was a werewolf or lead people to other werewolves on his desk? The very last place I could check was his bottom drawer, his locked bottom drawer. I picked up the letter opener I had thrown carelessly on the floor and jammed it into the lock. After a second or two of wiggling it around, the lock released. I pulled open the drawer and there it was, exactly what I was looking for – Garret's address book. I grabbed it. Looking around at the mess I had made, I knew there was no way the police officer wouldn't have realised immediately that I had been looking for something. I scanned the room quickly looking for an exit. The only plausible one I could see was the small window. I ran over to it and clambered out; as I did so I could hear footsteps in the hall. I knew I would have to leave my car, as in the narrow streets it would make me easier to follow. So there I was, running again.

After what felt like an hour, but what I was sure was only ten minutes at most, I slowed down and keeping to the back alleys I began to walk. What was the point in lying? Well not only was I wanted by the supernatural law enforcement, I was pretty much definitely wanted by the actual law enforcement now. That right there was the point in lying. I couldn't believe I was stupid enough to give them my real name. Yes they would have found it out eventually, but I could have significantly delayed that day. I was so lost in thoughts of my own stupidity, that I didn't hear him coming up behind me. A hand clasped itself over my mouth and pulled me into the nearest alley. I was about to start screaming when under the low light of a street lamp I saw it was Marcus. "We have to move!" Crap, I'd heard that before.

"What now?" I asked, I'll admit, petulantly.

"Hunters."

"Shit."

"Yeah." He once again grabbed my hand and pulled me around the corner. I was getting tired of being dragged around by this guy. He took me through the nearest door; it looked like we were in an abandoned warehouse. I hoped we would be safe, at least for now. "Are they still after you?" I asked walking further into the warehouse. It looked like it had been a bottling plant and possibly a distillery as well. There were several conveyer belts in the centre of the space, most of which had bottles on them. There were also large steel drums that reached from the ceiling to the floor on the back wall. The floor was so dusty that with every step I took a cloud of dirt erupted around my foot. The windows were black with filth, I was willing to bet that it was enough to block out sunlight. "No," he answered. "They're still looking for Garret, but I didn't want them to find you instead."

"I found Garret's address book," I told him. I thought he would know better who or what to look for.

"I thought you didn't want to help," he said annoyingly raising his eyebrow.

"I changed my mind. I thought you weren't going to save me when the hunters came looking."

"I changed my mind," he echoed me.

Suddenly Marcus's head whipped around. "Do you hear that?" he said looking round the room intently.

"No, what is it?" I asked worried.

"Well look who it is lurking in the dark as usual. And with a human, how your standards have fallen Marcus." My question was answered by the noise maker himself. He was a man of average height, neither tall nor short. He had black wavy shoulder length hair and the palest skin I had ever seen, even on a vampire. He wore a long black jacket, with a shirt and jeans under it. In my opinion he looked like a reject from a bad vampire movie, but from the way Marcus was acting I guessed he was a big deal.

"I find the best place to feed, is in the dark away from prying eyes. As the council commands." There was an odd tone to Marcus's voice. I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was lying about the feeding part.

"Indeed," the stranger said with a small laugh.

"What do you want, Alexander?" Marcus said taking what I could only describe as a tactical step in front of me. He was readying himself for a fight.

"Garret."

"What about him?" Marcus was beginning to pace now.

"Where is he?"

"I don't know."

"We're awfully near his Haven," said Alexander in a smug tone.

"I live near here," Marcus said mirroring him. "I thought you were hunting Alistair, not Garret."

"Who I hunt is of no concern of yours," Alexander retorted, his tone dangerous now.

"As I have already told you, I don't know. So if you don't mind I shall take my …friend and leave."

"Ahh… but I do mind."

Faster than I could see, Alexander was on Marcus. He had him pinned to the floor by the throat and in another blurred motion Marcus had Alexander pinned against a wall. They began to snarl and took on animal like stances, the set of their hands as if they had claws. They slashed at each other time and time again both drawing blood. I had no idea what to do, should I run? Would I find myself in even more trouble if I did? I made a move toward the door and then Alexander was on me instead. "I wonder what is so special about you?" he said more to himself than anyone else. Marcus seized him from behind and threw him bodily across the room. He hit the one of the huge tanks with an echoing thud, before tumbling down to the floor landing in a pile of glass bottles that shattered upon impact, impaling him with hundreds of tiny shards. He was unconscious, for now.

"What do we do now?" I asked awed at what I had just witnessed.

"We need to leave, looks like we are not safe anywhere. Can we go to your apartment again?"

"No, there will probably be human police there by now."

"Damn it!" Marcus cursed. "There is another Haven nearby… but it's for supernaturals only, you might not be welcome there." He was warning me that no matter what we chose now, we were heading for trouble.

"I guess we don't have a choice anymore," I said resigned to the fact that, for the foreseeable future, there was no way I could go back to my normal life. But at least this time, it was my choice.


	4. Chapter 4

Alexander would awaken soon and that was a problem. According to Marcus this vampire was an expert tracker, capable of finding anyone the vampire hierarchy needed found. He was ruthless and brutal and would do whatever he deemed necessary to catch his prey, killing vampires and humans alike. He was the council's judge, jury and executioner, administering punishment to whomever the 'council' chose as deserving. He caught wayward supes, and that now included us. Marcus told me that if we didn't do something, Alexander would catch us long before we made it to the underground haven. That was a problem. We had to hide the body and trap him somewhere before he could trap us.

"What do we do?" I had no idea what to do with an unconscious vampire.

"The tank." Marcus said gesturing to one of the huge tanks at the back of the room. That sounded like a good plan in theory, but I had no idea how it would work in practice. We had to get on top of the tank itself, that much I knew, but I didn't know how we were going to manage that either. I decided to leave the how up to Marcus and just do what I was told.

"We need to get on top of the tank," Marcus called, echoing my thoughts. He had moved over to the pile of blood and glass that encompassed Alexander while I was lost in thought. He stood peering at the body; I assumed thinking about how best to go about the job at hand. "If you can get on top of the tank, I can lift him straight inside." Marcus said after a moment of tense silence. I thought about protesting but what was the point this would be quicker if I helped, I gazed up at the tank and along at the conveyer belts wondering how best to go about this. "Quickly!" Marcus shouted, bringing me out of my reverie. "He's coming to!"

Great.

Taking a steadying breath I lifted my leg, placing my foot on the bottom of the conveyer belt and pulled myself up. At first it was more like a walk than a climb but as the belts incline steepened, I had to use my hands as well. Half crawling I reached the top of the tank. Refusing to acknowledge how high up I was with nothing to keep me there, I stepped off the conveyer belt and on to the tank. There was a large valve handle that opened the tank like the top of a submarine. I managed to turn it, though with great difficulty and pulled the hatch open. I gazed inside it was dark and very, very deep. From the small glints created by the reflected light, I guessed there must still be some amount of whatever liquid the plant had distilled, still left in the bottom. I didn't suppose this would matter much to Alexander even if it was deep. Vampires don't breathe. Unless to speak. "okay," I called down to Marcus, "it's open!" without a sound he was beside me, cradling the more or less unconscious Alexander. Marcus bent his knees to tip alexander into the hole, but it appeared alexander had only been feigning unconsciousness; at least for some of the time, because as a soon as Marcus tried to throw him into the tank he grabbed him round the neck clearly intending to bit him. This however turned out be a mistake; Marcus's knees were bent and he wasn't prepared for the shift in weight so they both fell into the murky tank as a result. Well fuck! Without thinking I shut the tank lid. Shit! What the hell was I going to do now? I couldn't leave Marcus there, but equally I couldn't let Alexander out.

Alexander was definitely awake now. I could hear the unmistakable sounds of fighting and the sloshing of water from within. It stopped briefly and I listened, sure this was only a brief calm. "Anna! Open the hatch! NOW!" Marcus bellowed urgently. I did as he asked as quickly as I could. Caught up in his haste, Marcus lunged out of the tank at top speed knocking me off the top of the tank. I felt like I was falling in slow motion. The height was such that I had time to rationalize what was happening to me. I knew I was falling, I knew it would hurt and I knew that I was going to land in a huge pile of broken glass. But I didn't.

Somehow Marcus had managed to catch me before I hit the ground. Our landing wasn't exactly soft as he had jumped at me to grab me mid-air. We broke apart just before we hit the ground and sort of rolled and bounced along the floor when we hit it. A few bruises were way better than broken bones and possible death in my book, so I wasn't going to complain. "You alright?" said Marcus and he sounded genuinely concerned. "Yeah, thanks." I said, sitting up. He sat beside me on the floor. I looked him up and down and then myself. We were filthy. Again. "I think that makes us even," he said after another one of his trademark silences. I raised a quizzical eyebrow, so he continued. "Well, you saved my life and now I have repaid you, by saving yours. That makes us even."

"No it doesn't," I said, shaking my head.

"How so?" he said affronted.

"Well," I said mimicking him. "I saved your life twice AND you being in danger has never been because of me."

"You're not going to get over that, are you?" he said sounding weirdly modern.

"Not any time soon," I concluded standing up.

We left the warehouse without another word to each other. I didn't feel the need to ask what had happened to Alexander in the tank and I didn't feel the need to ask how we were going to get to the haven. I knew he would lead me there if I was willing to follow and I was. I didn't feel that I had any other option, besides I had already made my mind up. We walked through the back streets for a while. My phone rang and I jumped. I had completely forgotten I had it on me. Hell, I had completely forgotten I had one. Sliding it out of my back pocket, silently surprised it still worked, I answered after the third ring. "Hello?"

"Anna?" It was my friend Lilly.

"Yeah?"

"The police are looking for you." I didn't reply. "I didn't tell them anything. Does this have something to do with the you-know-what's?"

'You-know what's' was Lilly's name for vampires. She was even more reluctant than I was to accept that they existed. Though I could hardly deny it now.

"Yes." I said simply.

"You can't talk about it can you?" she said her voice full of concern.

"No."

One of the many reasons Lilly was my closest friend was her understanding. If you couldn't talk she didn't ask, she never pushed and she never got involved if you didn't want her to. True to form she let the vampire thing go and continued with, "They were in the apartment." I lived with Lilly. She had been out of town for the last week, thank god! I couldn't imagine she would have taken to a vampire in our apartment particularly well. Again I didn't answer her. "Be careful girl," she said and she hung up. Lilly always knew when to stay out of things.

It was so strange to hear from Lilly, I had almost forgotten that I had a normal life outside Garret's. The last couple of days had been so hectic and so consuming that I had begun to count myself with the supernaturals. But I wasn't. I was human and I did have a life; one I would love to go back to. I knew that wasn't going to be possible, at least for a long while. I was marked now and not just by the human police, but by the supernatural law enforcement as well. I wasn't sure I would ever be able to go back to my normal life after this. It was a sad thought. But I knew I had to help Garret, I knew that I wanted to. He had been not only a good boss to me but a very good friend. I had known him going on five years now. How could I have never noticed or suspected what he was? I put it down to stupidity and naivety. I wondered how long before I would see Lilly and my other friends again. I wondered how long it would take us to find Garret, or if we ever would. It made me sad to wonder.

We had walked for a long time while I was lost in morose thoughts. I found myself at the entrance to a sewer. Marcus had lifted the man-hole cover without me even noticing. "We're going down there?" I asked knowing he wouldn't have lifted the cover if we weren't. I could hope, right?

"I'm afraid so." Said Marcus, not sorry at all. What the hell, I swung my leg onto the newly exposed ladder and climbed down. As I was climbing a felt a gust of air move past me. Marcus had jumped down while I was still climbing. Show off.

It was exactly as you would expect a sewer to be. Dark, smelly and dirty. There was absolutely no light once I stepped out of the small spotlight created by the open cover. I felt Marcus move beside me and take my hand in order to guide me to our destination. I was completely at his mercy, and I didn't like it. We walked in the darkness, well he walked; I stumbled. There wasn't much to trip on, but being deprived of my sight had made me clumsy; I kept tripping over my own feet. Every so often Marcus scooped me up in his arms and jumped with me. I assumed there must have been gaps in the walk way. He had the good sense to put me down after every jump to let me walk myself, even if it would have been quicker for him to carry me. After what felt like hours we stopped. The darkness was absolute. It was extremely disorientating being in the blackness, I didn't know where I was or where the edges were or even if there were any anymore. I decided the best thing to do would be just to stand exactly where Marcus had placed me. "Marcus?" I asked warily, making sure he hadn't left me. "Yes?" he replied startlingly close. I jumped and almost lost my balance but was able to regain it and remain standing, for once. "Why have we stopped? Where have we stopped?"

"We're not far from the haven now. I think I should go over what to expect."

"What's it called? The haven, I mean." It seemed like the best and simplest place to start.

"Salus." Marcus replied. "When we go in, they will want to question us. They will want to know who you are and what your intentions are. You must lie." That much I had figured out for myself. He continued, "Tell them you are my human companion. Tell them that I have brought you here. Tell them it is because I want to show you the world I live in. Tell them nothing of Garret or Alistair. Nothing."

"Should I pretend we're all loved up?" I asked, not seriously and because I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Do what you must to make them believe you. To them you must be a…tourist." He had paused as if he had needed to search for the word. I gathered this was not a time for joking and his tone implied that if we couldn't pull this off, we would be in big trouble.

"I understand," I said as Marcus appeared to be waiting for an answer.

"Then let's go."

Taking my hand once more, we walked through the darkness. I could see the doors to Salus before we reached them, as they provided a light in the gloom. They were huge and wooden, though surprisingly plain. When we finally reached our destination, Marcus let go of my hand and stepped in front of the doors. He knocked in an odd fashion. I could only guess that it was like a password. When the doors opened I peered curiously inside.

Words can barely describe what I saw.


	5. Chapter 5

It was the strangest, most beautiful other-worldly thing I had ever seen. After the dark of the sewer my eyes almost hurt looking at it. Salus was an entire city hidden underground and it was spectacular. It was the weirdest mix of modern and ancient. The buildings were amazing, most of them seemed to be made out of granite in different shades of grey; some were built like normal houses and others like apartment buildings. Some even had features that would not have looked out of place on a gothic church. The whole place was lit by old fashioned street lamps, with a twist. While they were the black diamond shape lamps you would expect, the actual bulbs shone out so brightly and so white you wouldn't believe that it wasn't sunlight. The buildings windows were made of dark reflective glass that reflected the white light and illuminated the whole of Salus. The ground was a mix between cobbles and concrete, both of which were surprisingly clean, this city was well kept. Somehow the city was supplied with electricity and I wondered if Salus had a deal with someone high up in the human world. Someone who knew supes existed and supplied them with utilities. That was an odd thought.

The city was bustling. There were so many people; some were completely indistinguishable from your average human, others not so much. The vampires were easy enough to identify. With other creatures, Marcus had to step in. We spotted a couple of ghouls; once I knew what they were I was sure I would be able to tell them apart from other supes. Ghouls looked like walking corpses with greying skin and sunken features; they didn't look much different from how I imagined zombies, except they had piercing yellow eyes. Marcus was kind enough to inform me that the reason they looked like walking dead was because they ate dead flesh… or living if they could get it. Ick. Marcus pointed out a couple of werewolves not by sight but because he could smell them. Again, ick. There were also some of what Marcus described as demons, not the biblical kind more like the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" kind. They were all different shapes and sizes in varying degrees of 'otherness'. Some looked more or less human like vampires and some had horns and scales.

My reverence was short lived however. It wasn't long after we arrived that we were accosted by a group of people that were very clearly hunters. I was sure they were going to dole out justice for what had happened at Garrets.

"Good evening madam" said a courteous voice that I was sure was faking it. "Marcus it has been too long". Marcus's face told me that for him at least, it hadn't been long enough. "If you would both come with me." Like we had a choice. The first of the hooded figures decked out in colourful robes, had removed his hood to speak to us. The man looked to me like a simpering idiot. He was small with very eccentric tastes in clothes; he wore long billowing robes in dark shades of purple and red. He was bald, with a white goatee and round silver glasses. To me he looked like a wizard – and it wasn't a good look. We were taken into a building that was right beside the doors we came in. An educated guess told me it was a guard house and I was proved right. As we entered the building I noticed cameras and their corresponding monitors sitting behind a desk. I would appear that Salus was well policed too.

We were brought before a very stern looking woman in her late thirties, or at least that was the age she looked. I was willing to bet she was a hell of a lot older than 39.

Simpering had been the perfect word apparently. Just as Marcus had stepped forward to greet the woman, our very own wizard nudged him out of the way to bow at her feet and kiss her hand. The woman dismissed him with a wave of her hand and he tottered off to the side. This time when Marcus stepped forward no-one intercepted him. "Virginia," he said politely. "This is Anna my human companion. I thought she would enjoy seeing the city and that after, she might just believe that we vampires don't always lurk in the gloom." He gave a charming laugh that Virginia reciprocated. Good work Marcus, I thought. "I really don't know why Albert felt the need to bring you before me, you are well known to Salus." I had to contain my laughter 'Albert' as a name didn't quite fit with the robed man. "May we…?" Marcus asked with an air of old friends flirting.

"Of course, enjoy." Virginia replied in the same flirtations tone. Marcus took my hand and gently guided me outside. I got the impression he was trying to give everyone else the impression that we were a couple, so I went along with it and clasped my hand around his. It almost seemed too easy, but maybe Salus while very well connected with itself wasn't so connected with the outside world. Maybe, just maybe they hadn't heard about Garret and his brother.

We wandered around the city together for a while. I imagined Marcus wanted to keep on the pretence of us being an item, so I didn't protest as we walked when he put his arm around my waist and playing along I did the same to him. We took in some shops and the market. It was like a medieval market with fruit and meats on sale and the most beautiful jewellery. After everything that had happened over the last few days it was a relief just to wander and relax even if it was with Marcus, who as it turned out wasn't such a bad companion. He was polite, funny, quiet and a very knowledgeable tour guide.

By the end of the day I was starving. Marcus might have not needed to eat but I did. We went to this little bar called 'The Inn'. Conveniently it also offered rooms, one of which we booked- a double. Figures. I understood why he booked us a room with a double bed, that didn't mean I had to be happy about it. And I wasn't. The food at The Inn was surprisingly good, while the menu offered a few 'delicacies' more appropriate for a ghoul, it also had the kind of hearty pub food you would expect of a bar. I loved it! It felt so good to have a warm cooked meal. I couldn't remember the last time I had eaten and when I tried I realised it had been well over a day. Full and content we fell into a comfortable silence. I wondered how long it had been since Marcus had eaten and how long before he would need to again? It was quiet and we were in a supernatural city so I decided it wouldn't be inappropriate to ask. "When did you last feed?" I asked point blank.

He looked momentarily startled then replied "The night we met."

"How often do you need to feed?" I asked hoping I wasn't making him uncomfortable.

"I prefer every day, but I can survive many more than that without blood." He seemed fairly calm, so I continued. "When will you have to feed again?"

"I'd like today and I might later but not while in your company." Momentarily I wondered whether or not I should be offended, before he continued, "I can drink bottled, but I prefer my blood warm from the vein."

Yeah…I was fine if he wanted to do that without me, in fact that was preferable. Ew.

Changing the direction of the conversation very slightly I asked, "Bottled?"

"Yes many stores keep a stock of bottled human blood."

I decided I didn't want to know how they came by the blood.

"Can you drink animal blood?" I wondered thinking of 'Interview with the Vampire' by Anne Rice.

"Why would I want to?" Marcus said screwing up his face.

Fair enough, really. But I still wondered whether he could survive if he drank it.

I was beginning to feel tired and when I conveyed this to Marcus he agreed that we should go to bed. Marcus paid for my meal and the room before we headed up the stairs to the left of the dining area. We were in room 13. Very funny, I thought. Marcus clearly had a sense of humour. The room was nice and modern though with some definitely antique furniture that had been refurbished. The bed was more king-sized than double and had perfectly white sheets. White was a brave choice for a hotel, you had to be very proud and confident of your hygiene standards to risk white sheets, which would show even the smallest amount of dirt or staining. There was even a shower and a big one at that; the shower even had a seat in it!

I had no spare clothes, so when I decided I needed a shower before bed I took one of the complimentary gowns in with me. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. After my shower, clean, content and full I climbed into bed and after showering himself Marcus did the same. We didn't say a single word to each other.

I awoke the next evening to find Marcus still effectively dead beside me. I got up, dressed myself and fixed my hair and face using some more complimentary products. I took my time, I had nowhere to be and no idea what to do without Marcus.

"You look beautiful" said a voice behind me.

I was startled and jumped up from my seat in front of the mirror. Very ungraciously I said "What?"

It was Marcus's turn to be startled. Due to my reaction he clearly thought he had overstepped his bounds and covered lamely by saying, "Erm… nothing. Nice evening."

We looked at each other awkwardly for an excruciating second or two before he said, "I have some business to attend to, you might need to look after yourself today." That was fine by me and I said so. I was quite happy to wander Salus's many streets and markets and stores. I was sure there were plenty of things to keep me occupied as long as it didn't involve ghouls.

Not long after our awkward moment Marcus dressed and left to do whatever it was he needed to and I was left to my own devices. That day was a pleasant as the one before. I walked around the city gaining whatever insight I could into the supernatural way of life and it was fascinating. I wasn't going to lie I still didn't like supes, but they were interesting. I found out from a little bookstore that ghouls can sometimes shape shift and from the same store that werewolves surprisingly weren't big on packs unless they were very old. I was almost overwhelmed by the wealth of knowledge I had gained in such a small space of time. Feeling tired again I returned to our room, Marcus wasn't there.

Marcus didn't return that night.

The next day I did the same thing. In the jewel market I spoke to a beautiful vampire with the most piercing green eyes. She told me that she was turned into a vampire nearly seven hundred years ago and that the older you are as a vampire the more powerful you are. She seemed very proud of her own power. She told me how her husband had turned her on their tenth anniversary. They were still together today. That was sweet I thought, though I couldn't imagine spending seven hundred with the same person. Maybe there was a reason I was single, other than my exes were assholes. I decided it was best not to open that door just then. I also met a human couple who told me that they had met a vampire while travelling and that they had hit it off. That vampire now lived with them and baby sat their kids. How modern. They had been introduced to Salus by the same vampire and loved the city for the same reason I was starting to fall for it.

I had enjoyed two wonderful, exciting and relaxing days but Marcus didn't return that night either or the next night or the next. I was becoming rapidly aware that I was alone in a foreign city full of monsters. I hoped Marcus was safe but I couldn't shake the feeling that he had abandoned me.

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	6. Chapter 6

I hadn't seen Marcus in days. I was definitely alone now. Stranded in a strange place. Even if I got to the gate and back to the sewer, it was pitch black and I had no idea where I was going. Even if, by some miracle, I got back to the street, I was surely still being hunted by the mysterious council. I thought about asking for help, but then I realised who would help me in this place? I sat for a long time, consumed by worry. Where could I go? What could I do? Where was Marcus? What was going to happen to me? Was I in danger? Was Marcus? Was I in danger because of Marcus? How had I found myself in this horrible situation?

Mentally I slapped myself. I could not just sit here, pathetically worrying about what was going to happen to me. I had to do something. I wasn't going to wait for someone else to help me, I had to help myself. The first thing I had to do was leave The Inn. If I really was being hunted, I couldn't stay there, surely it wasn't smart to stay in the same place for too long, especially absent the big strong vampire to protect me. Then again I didn't know if Marcus was in trouble or he had just plain left me.

I left the room with nothing but my phone and my purse. There was no point in taking anything else and really, what else did I need? I wasn't going to take anything that would encumber me. I took the stairs slowly. I was going, but I had no idea where. When I reached the front bar, looking at no one, I walked resolutely towards the door, but before I got anywhere near it, the bartender stopped me. Fuck! I thought. I was sure he wasn't going to let me leave. "Excuse me, miss. There was a note left for you at the bar. Here." He handed me a slip of folded paper. If I wasn't in danger I would have appreciated the handsomeness of the man, but I was, so I didn't. "Oh…thanks". I was so relieved. I moved over to a booth right beside the door and sat down, I thought it would look odd if I took the note and ran so I read it where I sat.

"Anna,

I'm sorry I had to leave you, but it was for your own safety. I had to deal with some things that demanded my urgent attention. I have dealt with them now and I am ready to restart our search for Garret. Please meet me this evening in the warehouse beside the market. We can talk then.

Marcus."

Well that told me absolutely nothing. The note was irritatingly vague. He had to deal with 'things'. Great. I thought about it for a while. I wasn't sure if I trusted Marcus before, but I definitely didn't trust him now. On the other hand he was the only person who I knew in Salus, though to say I knew him was a bit of a stretch I thought. If I didn't go, that was it; I was on my own, if I wanted to find Garret (and I did) I would have to do it alone. If I did go to him however, I could be in even more danger and Marcus could drag me down even further into his world. Then again, he could just as easily lead me to safety and Garret. I had made the decision to find Garret and save him if I had to. So I decided that reuniting with Marcus was my best bet, whether I trusted him or not. Not, being what I was going with for the moment.

Another reason the letter was annoyingly vague was the part about the warehouse beside the market. That told me absolutely nothing. Now I had decided to go, I had to find out where it was I was going to. Maybe I was being paranoid, but when I thought about asking someone it seemed like a bad idea. The only thing I could do now was actually leave The Inn and make my way to 'The warehouse by the market'.

I began to walk slowly and I hoped naturally. You lost all sense of time in Salus; the artificial daylight was a constant and made it impossible to tell what time of day it was without a watch. The way time moved in Salus absent night, meant that I wouldn't have been surprised if someone told me I had been there for weeks instead of days. When I reached the market I looked around, there were two large warehouses set back from the market square on opposite sides and I had no idea which of them was the one I was looking for. I was really starting to hate Marcus. I stood in the middle of the market square for a few minutes feeling like an idiot. Inside my head I 'eenie meenied' the buildings and settled on the one to the left of me. Determinedly I walked towards the building. It was a huge grey warehouse with several boarded windows, though it didn't look abandoned, more well used. The front door was locked. If I'm honest I hadn't expected any different, so I checked around the sides; but all those door were locked too. I guessed I had chosen wrong. I moved back across the market square to the building on the right. This one definitely didn't look abandoned just closed for the evening. It was large and well-kept with all its windows intact. It looked like a storage facility. Again the front door was locked and again that didn't surprise me. When I looked around the building I noticed a side door was standing open. There was something off about the whole situation and I knew it, but I was here now. I had decided on this course of action and I was going to follow it to the conclusion, whatever that might be.

Screwing up my courage I crept slowly toward the open door. It only occurred to me later that creeping was completely useless, when it was a vampire with super hearing I was meeting. Silently or at least silently to my ears, I entered the building. It was dark inside, the only light was from the open door through which I had entered; it cast a rectangular beam of light upon the floor beyond which was pitch black nothingness. I stepped into the unknown and heard the door shut behind me. Shit. I definitely wasn't alone, and I was pretty sure that Whomevers Company I was in, it wasn't Marcus. I walked slowly forward with my hands outstretched, I couldn't do much in the dark but I wasn't going to stand around and wait for something to grab me. I must have been near the centre of the room when I heard "Ah, Miss Norwood, isn't it?" I made no reply. Above my head a singular light came on it eliminated the whole room but barely. I could only really see the area around me in any detail; the corners of the room remained cloaked in gloomy shadows. The warehouse contained rows and rows of high shelves, stacked with all manner of goods. Somehow I was standing in the middle and had gotten there without bumping into a single shelf.

A figure stood before me just out of the light. When he stepped forward I was shocked beyond belief. "What is it you humans say? Sold out? Yes. That's it. He sold you out, Marcus I mean. Or at least he tried to. Sadly for him and you for that matter, we at the council are a tad wiser than that." I couldn't believe it! It was the simpering man, but his demeanour and voice had changed so completely. Suddenly I realised that it was me who had been the fool. I couldn't speak. "Not a very chatty thing, are you? Ah well, as long as you can listen. I do so want you to hear this." He was going to kill me I just knew it, but he wanted to toy with me first. Point out how I had foolishly placed trust in a vampire I barely knew, come of my own free will to a city full of the supernatural creatures that hunted me and how tonight I had willingly come here, knowing full well it could spell my end. "You see, Marcus brought you here as a kind of peace offering. You are one third of what happened at Garret's bar; I think he hoped that he could use you to bargain for his own life; so that he could continue his search for his real friends, the wolves. Sadly for him, we placed a little more value on his capture than yours. You my dear are merely the, how do say? Icing on the cake!" He finished with obvious pleasure. I was frozen with horror. "Still nothing?" He wanted a reaction, well screw him! I wasn't going to give him one.

"Bring him!" Albert said to the room. I was sure that everything about him when we had first met had been an act, from his ridiculous robes down to his ill-fitting name.

Two men, both dressed in black and one woman clad in a sort of tactical cat suit stepped forward and from behind them two more men stepped forward dragging the unconscious, bound form of Marcus. They threw him forward, he toppled over and rolled landing unceremoniously at my feet. He opened his eyes and stared at me in shock, he looked awful. Clearly he had been subject to more than just capture. "Anna? Anna, I'm so sorry" he said gazing up at me. Right at that moment 'sorry' didn't quite cut it for me and I told him so in no uncertain terms. "Sorry? Sorry? Are you fucking kidding me? We are both going to die because of you, you bastard!"

"You're not wrong there" said the woman in the cat suit; she had a surprisingly thick southern accent that didn't go with her outer appearance. They were closing ranks around us; forming a circle with Marcus and me in the very centre. I knelt down to untie Marcus, traitorous bastard he might be, but were both in the same boat now and I thought we might have a better chance if he could at least stand.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Said one of the male onlookers.

"What?" I said without thinking.

"Well, you might have noticed," Albert began, barely containing his glee. "That Marcus here isn't looking so good. You see when a vampire is starved he or she will become very ill, and very weak. To combat this and make sure they survive they have a sort of adrenaline rush we call a frenzy and they will kill anyone or anything in their sights. And being the only human here, I would say that puts you in grave danger my dear."

"You're bluffing. Marcus told me that he didn't need to feed for days." That was assuming that hadn't been a lie as well.

"Perfectly true, under normal circumstances he wouldn't be anywhere near depleted enough to frenzy. But for this very special occasion we drained him, nearly completely. So I would imagine that he's desperately fighting the urge not kill you as we speak." The asshole was almost giddy.

True enough however as I looked at Marcus, his eyes were more orange than ever and his fangs were out. He was shaking visibly and panting as if under some great strain. I stepped away from him. They weren't going to kill me they were going to have Marcus do it.

"Hera, be a dear and speed this up, I'm getting rather bored." He didn't sound it. The cat-suited Hera moved forward lithely. Upon reaching us she drew a dagger out from its sheath on her thigh and dragged it across Marcus's chest. He let out a guttural scream of pain. The dagger had left a huge slice that was pouring blood onto the floor. "No." Marcus growled. "No!"

He began to convulse violently, his limbs twisting grotesquely as they strained against the ropes that bound him. He growled and roared like a caged animal in pain. There was a ripping sound and I saw the frayed ropes hit the ground. Marcus moved slowly into a crouching position like a predator ready to strike. Slow, deep growls came from within his chest. He stared at me, with a terrifying, hungry expression on his face. I had to run! I knew it. I knew that was what they wanted, a show, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to stand around and let my self be killed by a rabid vampire. I ran straight along the row of shelving to my left. I was no match for Marcus. I had barley even taken ten steps before he grabbed me by the waist and threw me at the shelves opposite. They were stacked with wooden pallets, which scattered as I hit them. The pain in my back was immense; I hit the pallets and fell backwards landing on the other side of the aisle. I had no time to think about my bleeding back or the pain I could feel just about everywhere. I got to my feet and was running again. He was there in front of me. I nearly ran into him I couldn't stop myself. He was so close to me now. I turned on my heel and ran but again he was there in front of me so close we were almost touching. He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me against the nearest shelf. I kicked and screamed and punched but it made no difference. He was too strong. He forced my head to the side and I felt his teeth graze my neck before. "NO!" He shouted pushing off from the shelf. "No!" Marcus began darting about the aisle hitting off the shelves; it was like he was having a fight with himself. "Anna RUN!"

And I did. I ran through the aisles as fast as I could. I could hear clatters and bangs that told me Marcus was throwing things.

All I remember of what happened next was a loud bang followed by a gust of hot air, then being thrown off my feet and then, darkness.

I've also posted this on my wordpress Blog, which has other stuff about haven on it. So check it out there as well! The address is: battlebarbie117 dot wordpress dot com. (the 'dot's should be actual dots it's just they don't show up here for some reason.) thanks!


	7. Chapter 7

7

When I opened my eyes it was too bright, the whole room was illuminated by a flickering orange light. I was far too hot; sweat was making my hair stick to my forehead and neck. I felt like I was being crushed, there was as uncomfortable weight bearing down on my legs. The air itself was oppressive. When my coherent senses returned to me I realised that the warehouse was on fire, there must have been some kind of explosion. I was wedged painfully under a row of shelving and there was crumbling masonry lying around me. I could hear the sounds of moaning, other people were coming too as well. Shit! I needed to get out of there before the supes found me.

I struggled as hard as I could against the metal frame that trapped me but it wouldn't budge, I could feel my legs slowly going numb. If I didn't move soon, I wasn't going to be able to move at all. There was movement behind me, but I couldn't turn to see what was making the noise, friend or foe. My gut told me it was foe. For a moment I thought my gut had been wrong as whoever it was lifted the shelving unit off my legs but when I looked, I saw it was a man, half changed into a wolf. I knew instantly he had only moved the shelves so that he could get to what was stuck underneath it - me. I scrambled backwards willing my legs to move. I could feel pieces of metal, stone and glass cutting my hands as I used them to pull myself away from the werewolf. He began to vibrate and growl; in his injured state he couldn't resist the change. The noise of cracking bones filed the smoky air. The man's eyes became rounder and redder; his face elongated into a snout. Hair began to sprout from his face and all over his body. His hands curled into claws as his fingers lengthened. His legs became longer more dog like, with his ankles becoming pointed at the back, it was almost like he was walking on long tip toes. The man was now covered with black hair; he had pointed ears and sharp canines. He was a man no longer, he was a werewolf.

The werewolf walked slowly toward me, growling with every step. Pins and needles shot down my legs, I didn't have the strength to stand yet. I knew that if I didn't move faster he could kill me in seconds. But the predator in him was toying with me and his slow advance was his downfall. The building was unsteady and the ground began to shake there was another explosion, and a jet of fire shot between me and the wolf, he tried to step back, but stumbled on the cracked ground behind him and fell forward into the newly erupting flames. I knew the wolf wasn't dead and it would be only a matter of time before he came for me again. I had to get out of there.

It felt like fire was blocking my path in all directions; I was starting to panic now. I was stuck in a burning building. The heat was making me feel faint and the smoke was making it harder and harder to breathe, it wouldn't be much longer before I fell unconscious. There was a rack balanced against another huge frame. There was a growing fire underneath but it was the only way i could get away from the flames that were starting to engulf the far end of the warehouse. I put my hand to the rack and shrieked with pain! Everything was white hot. My hand began to blister, yet another injury to add to my list.

I took off my cardigan and ripped it in half. I tied each of the halves around one of my hands. They insulated me from the heat just enough that I could bare to touch the hot metal. I began my slow taxing climb. I was moving higher into the smoke that hung in the air. Just as I reached the top something scratched at my ankles and I fell. Luckily I tumbled over the top and not back into the fire below me. I landed on a large red tank marked 'PROPANE'. "Oh shit!" I said out loud. Now I knew what had caused the explosion. The warehouse stocked propane. Marcus must have pierced a canister. I ran as fast as I could towards the exit I could barely see now smoke was filling the room. "Fuck!" I exclaimed. There was a huge burning beam in front of the door.

I turned on my heel, I would have to head further into the warehouse to find my way out. Hopefully only this huge room was on fire and I might find an exit in another part of the building. I looked around frantically to see if I could find a clear path through the fire; there was another door on the back wall not too far from the side door I was standing at. There was a lot of rubble around it, I knew I would have to climb and crawl my way to it.

I began my arduous clambering over rocks and rubble, twisted and warped metal. As I climbed I could feel the rubble giving way beneath me, my foot and hand holds slipped from my grasp and I found myself tumbling into the centre of the huge pile of debris. Now I would definitely have to crawl. "Hera?" I heard a weak pained voice just up ahead. I crawled forward, squeezing myself through a gap created by a metal beam balancing on what looked like a paint can. By climbing over the huge pile of rubble, I had uncovered a very badly injured body. It was covered in blood and nearly severed in half. I gasped in horror. I felt like I was going to be sick. Every fibre of my being told me to turn around and get as far away from the injured man as possible; but I needed to be on the other side of the rubble so I would have to go past the horrific site. I took a steadying breath, feeling dizzier and dizzier I knew I would have to get out now or I never would. I crawled forward on my stomach, just barely stopping myself from retching as I felt the blood that soaked the floor soak my clothes. I drew level with what I thought was surely a dead body but as I tried to crawl past a bloody hand grabbed my arm. "Hera? Is that you?" it was Albert, the vampire who had tricked me into coming here and who had tortured Marcus. His face was horrifically burned, I wasn't surprised he couldn't see, there was not one part of his body that wasn't burned or bloodied in some way. "Human, I can smell that it's you, help me and I swear no harm will come to you at the hands of any supernatural creature." He coughed and spluttered blood as he spoke. Bullshit, I thought. If I helped him he would still kill me, just later, I was sure of it. I lay there in the blood, my arm still in his grasp and thought. Helping him was out of the question, what I needed to decide was weather to leave him and trust that he wouldn't survive this mess or kill him myself to make sure that if I escaped Salus that I would be safe at least for a short while.

Killing him would change me for good; it would mean that I was accepting, at least partly, that I was in this terrible world now. It would mean that I had found myself in a new kill or be killed world. But that was the reality; it was kill or be killed. I would never have dreamt myself capable of killing, but it was either me or him and I would choose myself every single time.

Realising I had already wasted too much time; I grabbed a large twisted sheet of metal and brought it down on Albert's neck. It severed his head completely. I was shaking violently, I felt so sick, I couldn't believe what I had just done. I was sure I was going to vomit but I forced myself not to. I moved under more rubble and finally found myself free and back in the open air. If you could call the acrid smoke open air.

There it was: the door. I ran towards it faster than I had ever run before in my life and burst through it. I had done it without thinking, but adding more oxygen to the room caused the flames to spike and the force of it threw me forward. I was running on pure adrenaline now, I sprang to my feet and closed the door to make sure the fire didn't reach this part of the building. It was pitch black now. Any light there was had been created by the fire and with the door shut it was gone. I walked slowly, hugging the wall, feeling my way around. It seemed like an endless amount of time that I groped around in the dark, for all I knew I could have been going around in circles. After a while I started to suspect that was just the case.

I slumped down on the ground exactly where I had been standing. There had to be a way to work out where I was going and how I could get out of the building. While I had escaped the fire, I knew it still raged on and it would be only a matter of time before it started to creep through to this section of the building.

I was shaken suddenly from my planning by the sound of movement behind me. Clearly someone else has figured this would be the best exit as well. Judging by the sound of their movements they were also having trouble in the dark. I stood up quickly and as quietly as I could groped around the walls, the first door I found I opened and slipped inside closing it behind me. I took a step backwards and yelping with surprise fell over what felt like a cardboard box. "Fuck!" I exclaimed aloud.

Something stirred behind me. I froze, trying to locate the sound. My scuffling had awoken something in the darkness. "Who's there?" I asked calmly in low tones. I wasn't calm at all, but I wasn't going to let my mask slip.

"Anna?" replied a growling breathy whisper. The voice sounded familiar yet different.

"Marcus?" I asked in surprise, not even sure it was him.

"You're bleeding, I can smell it." Tortured, starved and injured from the explosion, Marcus was only barely in control of his vampiric urges. "I'm sorry" he breathed.

"Sorry? You're sorry?" I retorted in an angry whisper.

"I did try to use you, but I couldn't go through with it, I couldn't do it, I tried to call it off but they had me, they knew I was lying, they knew it was me who killed the hunters." He was moving in and out of growls as he spoke. Maybe he hadn't been able to go through with it, but he still had been willing, at least at one point, to let me die. But I had no time to worry about that now, for the moment we were on the same side we both had to escape from Salus and more immediately the warehouse.

I moved further into the room, feeling around and finally I found a light switch. I pushed it hoping it would still work. It did; though only just. The light flickered and was very dim, it only slightly illuminated the room, but it was enough for me to see a figure crouching in the corner.

I moved closer to Marcus but he shied away. "C'mon. We have to go. We have to get out of here." The light flickered on fully now and stayed on, it cast an eerie blueish-white gloom over the room. I knelt down in front of Marcus. He remained crouched, hiding his face. I reached out to touch his arm but he let out a deep primal snarl, so I dropped my hand quickly. "You need to go." He was growling more than talking now. "Anna, you need to leave." I stood up and took a step back. He uncoiled himself and drew level with me; I could for the first time truly see his face. "Oh my god," I breathed.

He looked more like a monster than anything I had seen. His eyes were a burning, hungry orange that shone eerily out from their dark sockets. All the angles of his face had become sharper and more pronounced; a stark contrast to his hollow sunken features. His skin was grey and stretched, it looked almost like wax. His lips were a thin line that barely concealed his sharp teeth, all of which not just his fangs were pointed and deadly looking. There was nothing even remotely human about Marcus anymore.

"Anna run." He was twitching and convulsing, control was no longer his. "RUN!" he roared and as he did so made a lunge for me. I slapped him as hard as I could in the face, hoping to awaken him from his almost trance. I knew instantly that it was a mistake; I'd merely angered the beast. I turned on my heel and ran but he caught me in seconds. He was on my back and the weight of him made me fall forwards onto the hard floor, he used his body to pin me down and keep me there. His hand found my hair, and using the handful he grabbed he wrenched my head upwards. I screamed with pain, I knew what was going to happen before he did it. I kicked and screamed and scratched but it made no difference. I felt the painful stab as his fangs pierced my neck and the draining feeling of losing blood. He began to writhe on top of me and I feared my situation was about to become even more desperate. "No!" he cried, I felt the weight lift from me and in the same second the pain stopped.

Large, strong hands grasped my shoulders and turned me over. "Anna! We must leave now, can you stand?" I looked blurrily up into the man's face.

"Garret?"

I also have a wordpress blog where I post my chapters and extra info about haven the site it battlebarbie117 dot wordpress dot com.


	8. Chapter 8

8

It wasn't possible. How could he be here? And yet here he was, staring me straight in the face imploring me to move. "Anna, it's me, Garret. Please listen to me. We have to get out of here, it's not safe. Anna? Can you hear me, Anna?" He shook my shoulders as he spoke.

"Garret? How are you here?"

"Not now. I will explain everything later I promise."

I believed him, Garret always carried the air of someone you could trust and I did. I let Garret pull me to my feet. He guided me blearily through the dark maze of corridors. I don't remember much of how we escaped the building, all I remember is Garret pulling me through a door that lead to a cobbled alleyway and setting me down against the far wall. "Rest here a moment," he said to me softly.

We sat in comfortable silence for a few, far too brief minutes. I was very groggy. I felt light headed. I tried to remain empty, I didn't want to think about what had happened and the things I had done.

"Anna, listen to me very carefully. Did you see what happened to Alberik?" he spoke to me slowly making sure I understood every word. Normally this would have annoyed me but based on the state I was in, I couldn't blame him for assuming I might not be thinking very clearly. I'm pretty sure I wasn't. "Who?" I was sure I had never heard the name before.

"Alberik. The man who captured Marcus." He was looking at me seriously, like he was trying to will me to focus.

"He told me his name was Albert. He pretended to be …different." My brain felt sluggish, I wasn't really getting to the point.

"He always did have a penchant for theatrics. What happened to him? Anna! This is important!" He shook me again.

"I killed him."

"What? You… Anna … I…" He seemed lost for words, his face made it clear he wasn't sure that I understood what was going on. I took a deep breath and continued. "I found him under a huge pile of rubble after the explosion. He was badly injured. He told me that if I saved him, he wouldn't hunt me or Marcus down. I didn't believe him so I ended it." I closed my eyes, I was exhausted.

"How very shrewd and very clever. He was the only one who has seen your face and dead he can't tell the Council that you were ever here." He seemed shocked, yet approving, but also worried.

"I just didn't believe he wouldn't have come after me." I hadn't thought that he was the only one who could link me to the council. I hadn't thought that he was the only person in power who had seen me in Marcus's company. I hadn't thought of the big picture at all. Killing Albert or Alberik as it turned out, wasn't a great act of foresight; it was simple survival instinct. I thought that if I didn't kill him, he would kill me and I wasn't prepared to let that happen. You would be surprised what you find yourself capable of when your life is threatened.

"Well if he's already dead we need to get out of here. Where's Marcus?"

"I don't know, he disappeared after he attacked me." I spoke quite plainly. I didn't have the energy to bandy words.

"Marcus did this to you?" he looked horrified. I couldn't answer. I felt the undeniable tug of unconsciousness pulling me into blissful nothingness.

I awoke much later to find myself in a warm clean bed. Someone had changed my clothes and dressed my wounds. I was covered in crisp white bandages and was delighted to find that I myself was clean too. I felt better than I should have and I was sure that something had been done to me to speed up the healing process. I was still tired, but in the normal way; I wasn't mentally and physically drained anymore I just needed some good old fashioned sleep. At the same time I also had a lot to think about. Whether it was necessary or not, I had killed someone and I was fully aware that I was still numb to it and that I would have to come to terms with it at some point. I had almost been killed by someone I had considered an ally. To say I had trusted Marcus would have been a step too far. On top of that my world had opened up in a big way and I no longer had any idea what my place in that world was. The only solution I could think of was to talk to Garret. I sat up and looked myself up and down. Well, it could be worse. I swung my legs out of the bed and onto the floor. I sat there perching on the edge of the bed steeling myself to stand. I was stiff and achey but it felt good it made me feel alive and after several near death experiences crammed together that was exactly what I needed. I stood up and walked gingerly towards the door. It was locked; I was starting to feel the familiar knot of foreboding in my stomach. I pulled and jiggled the handle but nothing happened.

For the first time I looked around the room. It was a small room with bare cream walls and a dark wooden floor. The bed rested against the left hand wall and was covered with fresh white sheets. There was a small bare table on the right hand side of the bed and next to that was a tall thin wardrobe that turned out to be empty. While I rummaged in the wardrobe I heard the metallic click of the door lock and when I turned I saw Garret opening the door and stepping inside before closing it behind him.

"Why was the door locked?" I asked him without greeting.

"For your safety. I couldn't be here all the time so I wanted to make sure you were safe. That and it has a latch on the inside too." He pointed to a small knob under the handle.

"Oh." I felt like an idiot.

Like a true gentleman Garret sidestepped my little outburst. "How're you feeling?" he asked with a characteristically warm smile.

"Fine… I guess." I replied embarrassedly returning the smile.

"I'm sorry to do this to you so soon, but there's things we need to talk about. I need some details." He looked genuinely sorry.

"Don't worry about it. But first, where are we?" nothing about the room we were in gave even the slightest indication to our location.

"We're in the bar." He said looking mildly surprised.

"Really?" A very redundant question.

"Yes, there's a reason the store room is on the same floor as the bar. The basement of Garret's is a Haven. Though a small one." He looked proud of himself. "Well I guess you better tell me what has happened to you since the hunters came here."

I told Garret all about how Marcus and I had fled under his own instruction and how we ran for so long we had failed to notice the sun was rising. I told him how I took Marcus to my house and saved him from the daylight and how we had both decided to search for him.

"Do you know why the hunters were after Marcus?" asked Garret when I completed the first leg of my story.

"Because he helped Alistair." I answered immediately.

"Alistair? What does he have to do with this?" Garret looked shocked at the mention of his brother.

"Marcus said that Alistair called him asking for help, something had happened to his girlfriend. According to Marcus he went to Alistair's apartment and found his girlfriend half way to changing into a werewolf. He said that it's against your laws to turn a human, but it looked like Alistair had tried. So the hunters tried to kill her and Marcus tried to save her, at least that's what he said." I was sure that was what Marcus had said; it seemed so long ago now.

"Alistair doesn't have a girlfriend. And he couldn't have called Marcus."

"Well, Why not?"

"Because no one has seen him in over a year." He looked sad, it was clear he missed his brother and that for a brief moment he had thought he was going to hear some real news of him.

"I'm sorry." I said genuinely.

Garret shook his head. "Don't be," he said. "It's not your fault."

"Do you think Marcus lied?" I asked mercifully changing the subject.

"No, I think he was lied to. Marcus and Alistair have been friends for years. He'd want to help him"

"So Marcus was tricked too." It was a statement, not a question but that didn't mean I believed what I was saying. I didn't trust Marcus.

Garret seemed to have asked enough questions about the first part of my story so I continued. I told him about coming back to the bar and being questioned by the police and I told him all about Alexander.

"I always hated that pompous asshole." Garret said, clearly pleased that Marcus has left him stuck in the factory. I wondered if he was still there, I hoped so.

"After that we went to Salus" I told him how we travelled to the city and what happened while we were there; all the way up to the fake note and the warehouse fire.

"I'm sorry Anna. I truly thought you would be safe with Marcus." I was pleased that he didn't try to defend the vampire's actions

"Well, at least we got out of Salus alive. What happened to Marcus anyway?" I asked not sure why I cared.

"I don't know. I haven't seen him since…" Garret trailed off.

"Since he tried to kill me?" I supplied helpfully.

"…yes." He replied looking uncomfortable.

"Why didn't he? What stopped him?" I was defenceless next to his supernatural powers, he could have killed me easily and he nearly did.

"I don't know, if he was really as injured as you say, it sounds like he went into a frenzy. It takes real willpower for a frenzied vampire to stop themselves from killing anything and everything." He looked sad again, like he felt guilty. I didn't push the subject. This wasn't Garrets fault. We sat in silence. I guess we both had a lot to think about.

"So… what do we do now?" I asked after a while.

"I'm going to look for Alistair, maybe he's still alive. Marcus being brought to his house has to mean something. Why would the council issue a warrant for his arrest if they had already killed him. That's what we thought had happened, so maybe he's still out there somewhere." He looked hopeful yet resigned. "What about you?" I was pretty sure that at least for now, this was a parting of ways.

I paused for a moment. "I think I'm going to fix the bar… if that's ok with you. And I'll deal with the police. I just need some normal back in my life and work seems the best place to start."

"If you want to work here and keep the bar open you have my blessing. I can't think of anyone I'd rather have in charge while I'm gone. And I wouldn't worry about the police. I have a friend who works in the force and I explained to him what happened."

"Friends in high places" I said smiling. I was grateful to Garret for all he had done for me.

"I just have one condition," he said hesitantly.

"Tell me. After all you have done for me, I definitely owe you." It was true, I did.

"Keep the haven open. Not all supes are bad. Some just need a little help."

I couldn't refuse him, I owed him that at the very least and I had already decided as soon as he'd spoken that I would do my best for the bar and the haven below it. "Of course I will." He smiled and leaned in to hug me. He held me tightly in his arms, then pulled away just enough for us to be face to face. He kissed me passionately for the briefest moment, before we broke apart. Garret stood and moved to walk out of the room, he paused briefly in the door frame and said, "I've wanted to do that forever." I knew that meant goodbye and with that he was gone.

**I also post this on my wordpress blog which has some haven extras so check it out there too! The address is****:**** battlebarbie117 . wordpress . com**


	9. Chapter 9

9

For the first few days after Garret's departure I focused on myself and on getting better. Slowly but surely the bandages came off and I started to feel something like myself again. In the days that followed I started to feel more relaxed around the supernatural creatures that frequented the haven. "They're not all bad." Garret's words rang in my ears, every time I thought about the bar and the work I had to do. My second day in the haven I met a beautiful demon named Dalia. On the outside she looked like a normal human. She had gorgeous blond hair and she was so tanned that she looked golden. If you made her angry however you would see her black eyes, shark like fangs and horns, along with the fire she could create in the palm of her hand. She informed me later that it made an excellent party trick. Dalia turned out to be very helpful; she was quite happy to clean and order stock, she also knew how to keep the bars accounts in order and I found myself growing to like her. Quickly she became a good colleague and to my great surprise, a good friend.

When I finally returned to my apartment, my roommate Lilly was beside herself with worry. I could hardly explain away my injuries easily and I felt I owed her more than to lie to her. So once we had finished our tearful hello's I told her the truth. All of it. She took it a lot better than I had expected she would , but I suppose once you find out vampires exist you can hardly be shocked that they're not the only thing lurking in the shadows. Lilly seemed to adjust better than I had, and ended up as a barmaid in the bar. After what had happened the night I met Marcus, most of the human staff at the Garret's didn't want to come back and I couldn't blame them. Luckily for us several of the supes who had used the haven wanted to show their gratitude and were more than happy to take up jobs at the bar. A pair of twin werewolves consented to look after the haven itself as they knew far more about supernatural healing than I did; a vampire named David ironically turned out to be a fantastic cook and was happy to run Garret's small kitchen. While Lilly and I, and occasionally Dalia, acted as bar staff along with a demon named Tyler. Now we had stock and staff, all that was left was to clean up the bar and open it.

About a month after I returned from Salus, Dalia, Lilly, David and I took brushes and dustpans, mops and buckets up to the main bar and began to clean. The first thing we had to do we get rid of the copious amount of glass that littered just about every surface. Working tirelessly together for over 2 hours we managed to clear away every last bit of glass. Behind the bar took us the longest, as the entire bottle rack which ran the length of it, had been smashed. I smiled at the thought of what Garret would say had he found his favourite bottle of bourbon under the register; it was the only bottle still intact. Garret liked to pretend it was a secret guilty pleasure of his, but anyone who worked in the bar knew about it and knew that Garret, adverse to drinking alone, was quite happy to share. We called it his tonic.

We drew straws to see who would have to clean the disgustingly bloody floor. Shockingly, I drew the short straw. So while I mopped and scrubbed the blood stained floor the others set about their various tasks. Lilly and Dalia made it their mission to make the walls and windows along with all the other surfaces spotless, while David repaired the salvageable furniture and built the new items Dalia had ordered. Several hours in, the bar was starting to look something like it had.

Looking at the clock we realised it was after 2 in the morning and for 3 nightshift workers and a vampire, that spelled dinner time. Lilly, Dalia and I ordered take-out and David retrieved one of the blood bags that the haven stocked for himself. I still thought it was kind of gross, but David was a nice guy so I was willing to look past it. I still wasn't particularly keen on vampires in general but I decided that I would judge each individual one, on his or her own merits and as far as I was concerned David was a good guy.

I knew it was late but we wanted to re-open Garret's the following night, so after our short break we got back to work. The cleaning and building portion of our work was done. Now what we had to do was stock the bar, arrange the furniture and make the room look presentable. The first thing we did was arrange the black and red couches around the edge of the room with low black glass tables in between them. We set them out like booths, for people who wanted comfortable seats, a place to chat or privacy. We then put the dark wooden tables and chairs around the room leaving a square of space in front of the bar for people who wanted to dance or in case there were large queues at the bar. We put high stools in front of the counter then Dalia, Lilly and I set about filling the bottle rack, equipping spirit levels and putting glasses behind the bar. While we did that, David went and attached the beer kegs to the pumps.

Around four o'clock in the morning we had finally finished. Feeling pretty proud of ourselves we stood back to admire our handy work. The bar looked great. We had done a fantastic job and I couldn't wait to reopen the Garret's the following night.

Thoroughly exhausted from all our hard work, I slept like a log that night. As soon as my head had hit the pillow I was out like a light. I awoke the next day in the early afternoon feeling wonderful. I felt like after all the shit that had happened I had achieved something good. I felt like I was moving on. Once you find out about the other world, the world full of vampires and werewolves, the world that runs parallel with ours but never really joins us; you can never really forget it and I decided there was no point in trying. So I was going to embrace my new knowledge and work with it, instead of burying my head in the sand. Making peace with my life felt good.

I took my time getting ready. I showered slowly enjoying the feel of the warm water and I dressed slowly taking my time and enjoying that I actually had time to spare. I left my long wavy brown hair loose. I put on some subtle make up and slipped on some ankle boots. Looking myself up and down, I felt good. My injuries were much less noticeable; in fact, you would have had to look pretty closely to see the marks. Whatever I had been given at the haven seemed to have prevented most of the scarring for which I was grateful.

Lilly and I left together. She looked amazing; her auburn hair was pulled up into a stylishly messy bun on the top of her head. Strategic curls fell down, framing her face and her eye make-up was smokey, dark and sexy. The girl was working for tips.

When we arrived at Garret's, Dalia, David and Tyler were already there. They had spent the better part of the afternoon spreading the word in the supernatural community that the bar would be re-opening tonight. I was grateful to find out that a lot of the supes who had used the haven had done the same. Lilly and I had also advertised online to our human clientele. We hoped that our first night would be a success as we didn't want to let Garret down. I had to assume that he was coming back and I was sure he would be pretty pissed if we ran the bar into the ground while he was gone. I knew worrying was no use; the only thing we could do now was open the doors and hope the customers would come in and at 5PM sharp, that's exactly what we did.

To my surprise everything went off without a hitch. At first the customers trickled in slowly and we worried that our opening night was going to be a flop, but around 9PM the regulars started to return. It wasn't as busy as the opening of a new club or bar but it was enough to keep us going and that was what we needed, the regulars back. My night went well and I found myself less bothered than I used to be by the nature of my job. I joked and flirted back and forth with the customers, poured drinks, pulled pints and bussed tables as usual. It felt good to do something normal and I was pleased how easily we had all gotten back into the swing of things. Customers loved Lilly; she was beautiful and funny and even though she heard the same lines over and over again she made it seem like each time was the first and that each time it was appreciated. Between us we made some amazing tips that night and we weren't the only ones. The customers loved Tyler too; the men thought he was funny and friendly and the women thought he was gorgeous. I wasn't interested in him in that way, but I had to agree. Even with the silver gleam of his skin and his acid green eyes that made it obvious he was a demon, Tyler was an attractive man.

At half 3 we rang the bell for last orders and by 4 we had all the customers out and the doors locked.

"Well, it looks like we did it!" Dalia said excitedly.

"Damn right we did!" said Lilly equally excited, they both hugged me and I hugged them back, smiling from ear to ear.

"We did good," I agreed feeling undeniably proud of myself.

"Well done guys," said Tyler beaming as he came out from behind the bar.

We all felt an overwhelming sense of achievement. I was proud of us.

We were all exhausted but we knew that if we left the clean up until tomorrow we would regret it. We spent about twenty minutes clearing and whipping the tables and loading the dirty glasses into the glass washer. Now the only thing left to do was sweep the floor; it would be mopped just before we opened again tomorrow evening.

"I'll do that," I told them as Tyler reached for the broom. "You guys get going, you've done enough."

"You sure?" Tyler asked making it clear he didn't mind.

"Yeah, none of this would have been possible without you guys, you did great tonight. So go home. Go to sleep. And I will see all of you tomorrow." We stood for a moment just smiling at each other before Tyler said "Ok then. C'mon ladies." Dalia and Lilly waved goodbye and Tyler turned out the lights as he left.

"See you at home," Lilly said to me. We waved to each other one last time and then they were gone.

Sweeping the floor didn't take me long, so I decided to take out the bins as it would be one less job for tomorrow. I heaved the heavy bags from the bar and the kitchen out to the dumpster around the back and threw them in. I returned the newly lined bins back to their rightful places in the kitchen before heading through to the bar to do the same there. As I stood behind the bar facing the bottle rack I became aware there was someone else in the room. I don't know how I knew, but sometimes you can just feel it. I turned around and scanned the dark room; I was sure that just beside one of the booths there was a figure lurking in the shadows. For an insane second I thought it might be Garret the way he had appeared the night the hunters came, but rational thought told me Garret wouldn't creep around his own bar.

"Who's there?" I asked, keeping my voice low. The figure stepped forward and I was stunned into silence. It was Marcus. He looked better than he had the last time I has seen him but he didn't look good. Clearly whatever had happened to him in Salus after we had parted ways had taken its toll.

He moved towards the bar and I moved as far away from him as I could without leaping over the bar.

"You're scared of me." He was clearly feeling something, but I couldn't pinpoint which emotion it was.

"No, I'm not." A blatant lie. I took a moment to look at him. His face was still pale and drawn though it looked more human now. His skin was less waxy and his fangs were no longer protruding over his lips. His eyes however had not yet returned to their usual shade, they were still that burning hungry orange. "What do you want?" I asked him again in low tones. I refused to give him the satisfaction of hearing my voice shake.

"I wanted to make sure you were alright." He said taking a step closer to me.

"Bullshit," I said simply, stepping back to re-widen the gap between us. "It's been over a month. If you cared about how I was you would have come back sooner. You want something. What?"

"I have been here" he said stepping forward again, my back was against the end of the bar. I had no way to get away from him now. "I just didn't think you'd want to see me."

"You're damn right I don't." I could feel my temper rising.

"Anna, I'm sorry. As soon as I… came back to myself I looked for you. I've been here the whole time. I saw you with Garret and I saw you rebuild the bar."

"So you've been stalking me. Great!" I retorted, my voice dripping with sarcasm. I was sure he had an ulterior motive and I was sure I wasn't safe in his company. I wasn't trying to antagonise him because I knew exactly what would happen if he became angry but I couldn't help myself, I couldn't hold my tongue.

"I just wanted to make sure you're alright."

"Why now?" I didn't even try to conceal the accusation in my voice.

"I thought if I gave you some time, you might be willing to see me." He stepped closer yet again.

"Well you were wrong." I said painfully aware he was slowly closing the gap in between us.

"Anna, I'm sorry I hurt you. When vampires are severely injured or drained or starved they go into a frenzy. We black out. I couldn't help it." He looked upset as I made it obvious that I doubted his sincerity.

"You lied to me, straight to my face and you bit me. You fucking bit me!" I couldn't contain my anger any longer.

"I'm sorry I hurt you!" he was getting agitated too.

"Look, Marcus. This isn't about hurt feelings or bite marks," I gestured towards my neck. "It's about trust."

"It's the blood… we can't control ourselves when we are frenzied!" he was trying desperately to get his point across but I wasn't in the mood to listen.

"Well I trusted you to control yourself; I guess that was my mistake. AND I trusted you not to lie to me. I guess that was my mistake too." I was being harsh, but after what he did to me, he deserved it. In fact he probably deserved worse.

"Anna I-" He began, but I cut him off.

"You can apologise for the warehouse and for biting me and you know what I could maybe even get over that. But there's nothing you can say that will make the fact you sold me out to the council better" I was shouting now.

"Anna I know that was wrong, but I couldn't go through with it. I tried to call it off but it was too late." He was shouting now too. He had completely closed the gap between us, now the only thing separating him and me was the bar.

"Do you really think that makes it better? That you couldn't go through with it in the end? You took me with you for the express purpose of getting me killed to save yourself. You were going to let me die to save your own skin. You knew it would be a horrible slow death and you did it anyway. You were going to let me take the fall for you and there's nothing you can say that will ever make that better!" I was shouting so loud my throat hurt. Marcus slammed his hands on the counter.

"Dammit Anna! I'm sorry!" He was angry now and it was showing; his fangs once again protruded over his lips

"Don't you dare!" I said threateningly, knowing full well there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop him if he tried to bite me again. He looked shocked and took a step back. He was breathing deeply and his voice shook as he spoke. "Anna I'm sorry. What else do you want me to say? What do you want from me?"

"Nothing." I replied immediately. "I don't want anything from you and there's nothing you can say to make this better. So you should go please… and don't come back. Ever. I don't want to see you."

He looked taken aback, this clearly wasn't how he wanted or expected this conversation to go. He looked genuinely sad as he walked out the door, but no amount of regret could make what he did ok and no amount of apologising would make me forgive him. Watching his retreating back, I genuinely hoped that I would never see him again.


	10. Chapter 10

10

Marcus hadn't returned since that night and I was glad. I knew the reason I was hurt by his actions was more than just the physical injuries I had sustained. I found it difficult to stomach the fact that after everything we had been through together, he had been more than willing to have me die in his place. It didn't matter that he had changed his mind half way through, because by that time it was too late. The damage was done and there was no coming back from it now. But given time, I managed to push him and what happened in Salus out of my mind.

Garret's was going from strength to strength and while we were well known to the supernatural community, because of the haven hidden below, we became popular with the surrounding human population who seemed to view us as a theme bar of sorts. Either way, the customers kept coming and business was booming. As far as I was aware, things were going well for me.

We had our fair share of trouble, though no more than was usual for a bar. But the drunken fights in a supernatural watering hole tended to take it to a whole new level. On one such occasion two overly rowdy young vampires picked a fight with Tyler after he refused to serve them and I couldn't blame him. They were covered in blood, it was caked around their mouths and drenched their chests; they had clearly just fed from someone and it looked like that someone hadn't survived the experience. Everyone who worked at Garret's was well aware that vampires fed on humans but most vampires agreed you didn't need to kill the people that you fed from, these vampires however didn't seem to share that view and these were exactly the kind of vampires we didn't cater too.

"We don't serve your kind here." Tyler told them as soon as they reached the counter.

"A supernatural establishment that doesn't serve vampires? I find that hard to believe." Said the taller and the bloodier of the two.

"We serve vampires, we don't serve murderers." Tyler's voice was authoritative. He was making it clear it was not worth their while to mess with him.

"All vampires are murders!" said the young vampire raising his voice, he wanted an audience. He got his wish; any eyes that hadn't been looking already, now fell on the scene at the bar.

"Not all vampires make it obvious and most are smart enough not to bring it into a bar." Tyler's voice was dangerous.

Without warning the smaller of the two, who had remained silent for the duration, lunged over the bar. He grabbed Tyler by the front of his shirt and threw him bodily over the counter. Tyler landed in the middle of our make-shift dance floor. He gathered himself quickly and was on his feet in seconds. It was now painfully obvious that he was a demon. His eyes looked more like a cats now, with slits for pupils, his usually beautifully straight and white teeth were thin and pointed with black tips and his ears looked like they belonged on how I imagined a goblin. He raised his hands to show he was ready for a fight and I noticed that his figure nails were now long, black and pointed. Nothing in the world could have made me pick a fight with Tyler at that point. There was a lot grappling and punching before the bigger, bloodier vampire seemed to have Tyler occupied, fighting in the middle of the dance floor. The smaller more sinister looking vampire broke away from the main fray and turned to Dalia. He was on her before she could summon fire in her hand and pinning her against the bottle racks, he bit her neck. I had no idea what to do; but I knew I had to do something, so I grabbed the nearest bottle and smashed it over the vampires head.

Sooner or later I would learn not to pick fights with vampires, apparently not tonight though.

He shrieked and released Dalia and I was sure he was going to bite me next; but to my surprise, not my relief, he picked me up and tossed me over the bar. Luckily for me, though probably not that luckily for them, I hit Tyler, the large vampire and the crowd that had amassed around them. We all fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. As we tried to disentangle ourselves from each other, the smaller vampire moved towards us, but before he had gotten anywhere near us, Dalia summoned fire in her hand and thrust it forward. It hit the advancing vampire in the back, he shrieked as he burst into flames. From the instant she had done it I could tell Dalia had realised that that was a bad idea. The flaming vampire began to shriek and stagger around in front of the bar. David appeared from the kitchen, he must have realised that this wasn't a normal bar fight; he grabbed the nearest curtain and threw it over the vampire. He then tackled him to the ground, putting out the fire before it could send Garret's up in flames. The badly burned vampire tried to fight free of David's grasp, but he punched the vamp dead in the face and knocked him out cold.

Tyler and the crowd managed to wrestle the other vampire to the ground and Tyler held him there with his knees. With everything now under control, Tyler, David and a few helpful customers threw the unwanted vamps out of the bar. Luckily enough for us, this had happened late at night and most of our human customers had gone home for the night. The ones that remained this late were the ones who were aware that the bar was the real deal and there weren't many of those.

A few weeks later, I found myself alone behind the bar at Garret's. Lilly was running late, Dalia was in the office sorting through our accounts and Tyler wasn't due in that night. It was neither a quiet nor a busy night, it was a comfortable medium. For the moment the customers seemed content, so I busied myself wiping down the counters, placing empties in their appropriate bins and loading and un-loading the glass-washer. Once again, my back was turned when I heard the door of the bar open. The atmosphere within changed, it was like the patrons were collectively holding their breath. I turned and felt a strange sense of deja vu as four men, dramatically hooded and cloaked, filed into the bar and spread themselves around the room. Several people left their chairs and dove for the exit; clearly they had been naughty and feared their comeuppance. As before, one of the figures walked forward, to the bar. To me.

He removed his hood as we drew face to face; he had short dark blond hair that curled tightly. He looked authoritative, the way some people just can. It was his jaw; it made his whole face look commanding. I knew this could only be about three things: The hunters from Garret's, Salus or Marcus.

When the man spoke his voice was flattering and charismatic. "Miss Norwood I believe. You are the fiery brunette that everyone's talking about."

"Can't imagine why." My tone was guarded.

"Why? Why your success of course." He gestured around at the bar as he spoke.

"My reputation precedes me apparently." I stated coldly.

"Indeed." The man smiled a knowing smile.

"Why are you really here?" The last few months had given me confidence. They hadn't made me stupid though; I knew there was a line and I knew if I kept pushing, I was soon to cross it. The blond man looked affronted, "straight to business then." His voice was crisp and his tone was clipped. The man was not pleased that I had stopped his theatrics in their tracks. "We seem to have lost several hunters."

"Maybe you just misplaced them." I was walking that line again.

"Perhaps. Or maybe you know something about it." He knew I was lying. All I could do was hope that he wouldn't start anything in front of so many people. "Maybe Garret will know? Where is he?"

"He's not here." A sentence I found myself uttering time and time again these days.

"Where is he?" The man was becoming impatient.

"I don't know." That was the truth, I really didn't know.

"You don't know very much do you?" It was a statement and an insult all rolled into one.

"Apparently not."

"Alexander."

"Who?" I did my best to sound uncaring.

"He came here before I did, also looking for our missing brothers. Now he's missing too. I suppose you don't know anything about that either." He was getting angry now and I realised for the first time, that he was a vampire. But to look completely human, at least at first glance; he must have been a very old one.

"I suppose not." I was starting to sweat now; he wouldn't take my insolence for much longer.

"Then maybe we should talk about something you do know about. Marcus." He knew he had me.

"We've met."

"Of that, I'm very much aware. Where is he?"

"I haven't seen him in months; I don't know where he is." Again I told him the truth, though it didn't seem to make a difference. "I have had nothing to do with him since he attacked me."

"In Salus." It was a statement.

"Yes. In Salus."

"Why did he attack you?" He asked. I always wondered why? It seemed so irrelevant.

"Because that's what vampires do." I knew that wasn't the case, and I knew that not all vampires were like that, but I wasn't going to tell all the ins and outs to this particular vampire.

"Aw, surely you don't believe that? Especially with the company you keep?" He had me there.

"They're vampires? Oh my god." I said with dead pan sarcasm. I had finally crossed the line, like I had been threatening to do from the very beginning. The man leaned forward in full vamp-mode. His fangs were out and his eyes glowed. "The Fire, in Salus, what do you know about it?" He was half growling now.

"Nothing. It happened later, after I left. I didn't hear about until afterwards. Some supes who came through the bar mentioned it." No sarcasm here. I wasn't that stupid. To me, my lie sounded plausible, I hoped he bought it.

"So you know nothing about yet another missing vampire, Alberick?"

"Nothing. I don't remember ever meeting a vampire named Alberick." I would be in serious trouble if they ever found out I had killed one of their own. I wasn't Garret, I couldn't defend myself.

Removing his hands from the counter, the man beckoned the other figures, "Come, we shall take our leave. And Anna, I'll be seeing you again."

The very thought of his words gave me chills, I was seriously fucked now. They had no proof I was involved in any of these events but I was sure they would piece it together sooner or later. I needed help; but Garret was nowhere to be found and I would be damned if I was going to try and find Marcus and ask him for help.

We closed the bar early that night. After the hunters left, most of the patrons left anyway. The hooded and cloaked figures weren't exactly good for business. Sitting at one of the bar's many tables, Lilly, who had finally arrived just after the hunters left, Dalia, David and I discussed at length what had happened that night. We discussed what we thought his words meant, how long it would be before they found Alexander and what would happen when they were able to prove my involvement in the deaths of all their missing 'brothers'. I found it ironic that they talked of 'missing brothers' when it appeared they had something to do with the disappearance of Alistair. After well over an hour of contemplating, speculating and plan concocting, we decided the best plan was to wait and see how events unfolded. Maybe we wouldn't hear from them again. Maybe they would have bigger fish to fry or maybe they wouldn't be able to prove anything and they would just give up.

David walked Lilly and I to our building as I hadn't driven to work that night and was feeling a tad shaken after my encounter with the blond vampire. We waved goodbye to him and I apologised for my remark about vampires. He assured me he understood and that there were no hard feelings. Feeling a little better about that, we walked up the two flights of stairs that led to our apartment in silence. When I reached our front door I noticed it was unlocked. Thinking of how Lilly had been late to work, I assumed she had just forgotten to lock it in her hurry to get to the bar and as such I thought nothing of it when I stepped inside. But as soon as I crossed the threshold I sensed something was different, wrong. When I walked into my living room I couldn't believe the scene that confronted me.

"Son of a bitch!"


	11. Chapter 11

11

"You have GOT to be kidding me!"

"What's wrong?" said Lilly at my back, but when she saw what I was looking at she said, "Oh my God!"

It was Alexander, sitting upright in one of our chairs. At first glance, I thought he was alive, waiting for us; but on closer inspection I saw that he was definitely dead. His head had been severed and then re-attached. Lilly pushed passed me and ran to the kitchen; I could hear the sounds of her vomiting into the sink. The noise hardly added to the ambience and it made me feel slightly sick too. For a crazy moment I was amazed that a vampire's body hadn't turn into ash or goo; but I snapped myself out of it, I had bigger things to worry about and no time to marvel at the inaccuracy of vampire mythology.

Alexander was soaking wet and smelled strongly of wine. He couldn't long be out of the vat we had left him in. He was soaking my chair in blood and alcohol, all things that would be difficult to get rid of. I knew I needed to dispose of the body and I knew that it was the hunters that had put it there. They were creating their own evidence. The first problem on my long list was getting it out of the chair and after that, out of the apartment. Even together, there was no way Lilly and I could inconspicuously get a body down two flights of stairs. And even if we managed it, where would we take the body after that?

I needed help. And I hated it. Looked like I was going to be damned then. I knew I had to go and find Marcus. Marcus the Murderer. Marcus the liar. Marcus the vampire who had nearly killed me. I could never trust him and I didn't even know if he would help me; that is if I managed to find him. But I needed help and there was no-one else I could turn to. I knew David, no matter how friendly we had become, would not want to tangle with hunters; besides I would never ask it of him or any of the others. The council had no reason to go after them and I wasn't going to give them one. Marcus on the other hand, was in this already. In fact, he was the reason I was in this.

I walked through to the kitchen to check on Lilly. She was still leaning over the sink. When I reached her she turned and hugged me. I knew it would be asking a lot of her but I needed her to focus, we were both in this now. "Lilly, sweetie, I need you to stay here while I go get help. Stay here and make sure you don't let anyone in but me. Okay?"

"You're going to leave me on my own?" she sounded scared.

"I'm sorry but I need to go get help. We can't call the police. Way too many awkward questions. You need to make sure you don't let anyone in."

"Okay, but don't be long. I don't want to be alone with…it for too long." I was glad she understood why I had to leave her.

"I promise."

I left the apartment thinking fast. Several times while out at night, I had thought I had seen something out of the corner of my eye but I had dismissed it. Now that I thought about it, maybe it was Marcus. Maybe he really was watching out for me. For the first time ever, I hoped so. It was one thing to accept the supernatural world but I was stupid to think that I would be safe in it. If Marcus truly was watching out for me, then he would be out there, in the darkness somewhere. I walked straight back to Garret's and standing outside on the pavement in front of the bar, I screamed at the top of my voice. "Marcus! Hey! I know you're out there! Marcus!"

And there he was. Great, I really did have a vampire stalker. He had appeared almost instantly in the alleyway beside the bar. Marcus walked briskly towards me looking extremely angry. When he reached me he grabbed my shoulders and shaking me violently as he spoke, He said, "Anna! What the hell are you doing? Have you gone insane?" He was definitely angry. Good.

"I need your help."

"Shocking."

"When have I ever asked you for help? You are always the reason I need help."

"Is everything always going to be my fault?" He shot back bitterly.

"Pretty much." I retorted.

"You're the one screaming at the top of her voice in the middle of the night. What do you want?" Marcus definitely wasn't happy to see me. Maybe he too had hoped that after our argument in the bar we wouldn't meet again. Then again, here he was, he had answered my call, if he really wanted rid of me he could just as easily have ignored me.

"Some hunters came to Garret's tonight." I told him. For now at least, we had to put our personal problems aside.

"I know." He stated immediately.

"That's creepy, by the way."

"Get over it." Marcus the asshole. I decided to let that go; arguing was getting us nowhere fast.

"They threatened me and when I got home I found a body in my apartment." Straight to the point seemed the best way to go.

"How do you know it was them?"

"Because the body was Alexander. Decapitated then…re-capitated." That seemed like the most succinct explanation. He looked openly shocked for a moment, then recovered himself. Clearly Marcus was playing it cool. "What do you want me to do?" He asked as if I was wasting his precious time.

"What do you think I want you to do? Help me get rid of the body before the hunters come back. They are looking for any reason to get both of us. We have to make sure they don't find Alexander in my living room!" I said urgently

"So we're a 'we' now?" Marcus said with an attitude that made me want to hit him. I threw my hands up in defeat. "Whatever. Never mind. I'll sort it myself. I knew I couldn't trust you." I turned on my heel and walked away, without taking so much as a backwards glance. Asshole, asshole, asshole. He didn't follow me. Lilly and I really were on our own. How could this night get any worse?

When I reached my front door, Lilly was standing outside the apartment. "I couldn't stand being in there with 'it' any longer." She said answering a question I hadn't asked. "Where's the vampire?" Sometimes I thought, I didn't give Lilly enough credit; she had known exactly who I would go to for help. "He isn't coming." I told her flatly. "C'mon we need to get that body wrapped up in something so we can get it out of here."

We went to the kitchen and found as many garbage bags as we could. Taking a pair of scissors I cut several of them down the centre so they would open flat. I placed the newly cut bags around the chair and laid some out so we could wrap the body up inside them. We both stood for a moment, taking steadying breaths, steeling ourselves for what we were about to do, when there was a knock at the door followed by the proclamation "This is the Police. Open up!" I had been direly wrong when I had thought this night couldn't get any worse. This was definitely worse.

Doing my best to look calm I walked at a comfortable and what I hoped was an unsuspicious pace towards the door. As I opened it I gave the officer a glowing, almost natural, smile. "Yes?" I asked politely.

"There have been reports of a body at this address." The officer stated. She was a very beautiful black woman who looked more like a model than an officer of the law. I wondered absently if she had been a model before she had joined the police.

"Excuse me?" I said looking politely confused. "There must have been a mistake!"

"You understand Miss; it's my duty to make sure nothing untoward has happened."

"I understand." They couldn't really believe there was a body here or surely there would be more cops.

"So you won't mind if I take a look around, then." I clearly wasn't acting as well as I thought.

"Yes I do mind! But I suppose that won't stop you!" I said waspishly. It seemed like an appropriate response. "Please step aside Miss." The woman pushed past me. This was it, we were screwed. We had the decapitated body of a vampire in our apartment. How the hell could we explain that?

The officer walked slowly down the hall checking everything thoroughly. This was torture. She looked in my bedroom and was satisfied that nothing was amiss. She did the same with Lilly's. She then moved to the kitchen, nothing, and then the bathroom, also nothing. The next room was the living room. I felt like my heart had stopped. She entered the living room and turning to me said "I'm sorry to have bothered you, Miss?"

"Norwood." I answered barely able to breathe

"Miss Norwood. Sorry to have taken up your time. You have a good night now." She left abruptly, closing the door behind her. I ran the few steps to the living room. All that was inside was Lilly standing awkwardly in the middle of the floor. The body, the chair and the garbage bags were all gone.

"What?! How is this possible?" I was dumbfounded.

"It was your vampire. He took the body and the chair and everything." She seemed just as surprised.

"Where did he take them?"

"Out the window, I think." What the hell?

"Marcus?" I asked the air.

"What?" he answered sounding mildly irritated. His head appeared at the window, he must have been crouching on the ledge just outside. I laughed out loud. It was a nervous reaction, the whole night had been terrifying and ridiculous. "Meet me on the roof." He disappeared from view.

I did exactly as he asked and made my way to the roof. Marcus had moved the body and the chair on to the roof of the building. It wasn't ideal, we would now have to get them off the roof as opposed to down a few flights of stairs; I wasn't going to complain though, it was a hell of a lot better than having them in my living room.

I stood on my own for a moment of two, waiting for the vampire. He didn't leave me waiting for long before he appeared on the roof beside me. "Thank you." I said to him genuinely. All he did was nod. Problems, we had our share, but there was no denying he had saved my ass tonight. "Help me wrap up the body." Again I did exactly what he asked. We worked in silence for several minutes wrapping the body up in the bags that opened flat like tarp, before putting an un-cut bag over either end of the parcel.

I felt distant and detached from the whole situation; it was the only way I could keep going. I couldn't let myself think about what I was doing. Disposing of a body wasn't ever something I thought I would have to do, and it was something I hoped I would never have to do again, as long as I lived. "What about the chair?" I asked vacantly breaking our silence.

"We'll burn it; but not here." His tone implied that he would do the burning and I was grateful. "Go and get your car and bring it round the side of building."

I must have done what he asked, though I don't remember. It was like I was in a trance. The events of the evening were catching up with me. It seemed like aeons ago, that the hunters had come into the bar; I could barely believe that it had only been earlier tonight. Marcus jumped from the roof with Alexander over his shoulder. He opened my trunk and forced the body inside without taking much care. He disappeared a second time returning moments later with the chair, he pulled it apart with his bare hand and thrust the remnants into the back seat of my car. If I wasn't so tired, both bodily and mentally, I would have been impressed by this show of brute strength. "I will get rid of these, you don't need to worry." He said walking round to the driver's door and opening it. "Thank you." I said again, however else I felt about him, I was truly grateful. "You needed help, I couldn't exactly refuse." It was clear he was trying to atone for what had happened in Salus. "I am sorry" he said to me and for the first time, I believed him. "I know." I did know, but I still couldn't bring myself to forgive him. I wasn't sure I would ever be able to, no matter what happened. "This doesn't change anything." It was honesty, the only gratitude I could offer him at that moment.

"I know." He seemed resigned.

After he left, I went straight back to my apartment. I couldn't bring myself to go anywhere near the living room, the thought of it made me sick. Lilly was already in bed by the time I returned, though I doubted she was sleeping. I didn't bother her, she probably wanted to be alone and we could talk in the morning. Marcus may have dragged me into this but I had dragged Lilly along with me. I felt dirty so I decided the best thing to do was to go and have a shower.

As I stood under the shower I could feel tears mingling with the water as they streaked down my face. I didn't sleep at all that night.


	12. Chapter 12

12

Working at Garret's bar I learnt several things. The most recent and most annoying of which was that supes are way better at playing catch than I am. On one particularly dire night the bar was empty by 1am. A combination of horrendously bad weather, several gigs on the same night and the fact it was a Wednesday, meant that most of our customers were elsewhere. So out of sheer boredom, Tyler, David, Caden and Christine (the twins who ran the haven below the bar) and myself decided to entertain ourselves by playing catch with empty bottles and cans. I held my own for the most part, but when David and the twins could all catch objects they themselves had thrown across the room, Tyler and I were definitely lagging behind. Needless to say those possessing super speed won our little game and all five of us spent the remainder of the night clearing up broken glass.

Another thing I learned, which was much less annoying that my inadequate catching skills, was that there is so much more to the supernatural world than it is ever possible to learn. Though I found myself wanting to try. I spent more and more time in the haven below Garret's, learning from what I saw and helping those in need as much as I could. Ghouls were never allowed in any smaller havens like ours because they never seemed to be able to control their flesh eating tendencies. That was one of the first questions I had asked Caden and Christine when I entered the haven because after Salus, I always remembered their eerie faces. I was extremely glad that I hadn't come into closer contact with ghouls other than the passing glace I got at the market place. Ghouls are actually more prone to 'hunting' in packs than werewolves are. Very rarely werewolves move in packs and when they do, it tends to be a family thing, rather than for hunting or being stronger in numbers; turns out lone wolf is more accurate. Werewolves tended to be reasonable people though a lot of them seemed to have slight anger issues, that wasn't surprising though; the beast inside and all. I also found out something that had been bugging me; born werewolves could turn at will, except on full moons when they had to turn; whereas bitten weres could only turn on the full moon. Vampires, like most people, were hit and miss. Some were nice, some were not; and most had a penchant for secrecy.

Several more hours spent down in the haven and several nights spent behind the bar later; I was once again at Garret's. We were just about to close and I was watching the news as I cleared the tables so that Tyler could wipe them down. The news report was a breaking story. The mutilated body of a young woman had been found near a high end apartment building on the other side of the city. The news reporter thought it might have been an animal attack, provoked by human intervention. "So what? They think someone set an animal on this girl?" said Tyler as he ran a cloth over a particularly beer soaked table.

"Sounds weird." I conceded.

"If I didn't know better I would say that this sounds like a werewolf attack."

"I thought werewolves liked to keep a low profile."

"Usually they do. I can't see why one would want to be noticed. But I can't see why someone would murder that woman by setting a wild animal on her; especially in the city. Seems more likely that it's a werewolf, or something similar. Either way I would be willing to bet money this was something to do with the supe community. You just know sometimes."

We did the rest of the cleaning in comfortable silence. While Tyler listened to his i-pod, I thought morbidly about what could have happened to the poor woman on the news. Barely an hour later Tyler and I had finished our end of nights chores, we said goodnight to each other and Tyler left to drive home while I locked the front door. As I removed the keys from the door and slipped them into my bag I felt the presence of someone behind me. I took a deep breath and turned around. I was relieved to see it was only Marcus standing behind me.

"I hope I didn't startle you," he said in that odd formal tone that always reminded me he was so much older than he looked.

"You didn't, not really." I couldn't decide how I felt about him being here, in front of me.

"I understand that we are not… on the best of terms and I know this is a big ask; but I need your help." He spoke very quickly, like he was making sure he got all the words out before I interrupted. He looked like he was bracing himself for the storm. I laughed out loud; he looked both relived and confused. "Why are you laughing?"

"When you asked for my help you looked scared of me, it's so ridiculous, you… scared of me" I couldn't help smiling.

"I was waiting for you to shout at me again." We both laughed. The moment became awkward; we had no idea how to behave around each other. I had made my feelings clear and he had made it clear that he wasn't going anywhere.

"What do you need?"

"I don't know if you saw the news tonight, but there was a dead body found near Alistair's apartment. I think it's the girl I tried to save."

"Well they were going to find her body in the apartment eventually. What's the problem? Other the fact they murdered an innocent girl." I said sadly.

"The problem is that I buried that body, I didn't just leave it lying in the apartment."

"So… someone dug it up and put it back?" I said incredulously.

"Looks like it."

"So what do you need from me?" I asked suspiciously.

"Well I don't exactly blend in…" He was right. It seemed that he had never fully recovered from whatever happened to him in Salus. He always looked gaunt these days, and his eyes had never returned to their usual eerily bright brown. "So I need you to distract the police… the detective working the case is a sleazy middle aged man partial to beautiful young brunettes." He looked uncomfortable. Good! This was so not how I wanted to spend the limited remainder of my evening.

"Ugh, fine." He was the reason I hadn't had to explain to police why there was a decapitated body in my apartment; I figured that in some skewed way, I owed him.

"I'll drive, seeing as you don't have a car anymore." We had had to burn my car to get rid of the blood stains. No car seemed a small price to pay for not being in prison.

The drive in the car was just a silent as the walk to it had been. I noticed that Salus really had changed Marcus. He seemed like he was always on edge now, every muscle in his body looked tense. While he sounded perfectly calm, he had this way about him that made it seem that he was only barely holding on to control. "What happened to you? In Salus. What did they do to you?" I couldn't contain myself, the silence was killing me. "They drained me and tortured me and starved me." his honesty was startling. In spite of everything I felt sorry for him, whatever had happened to him had been terrible and it had definitely left its mark. I wondered if he would ever fully recover. For his sake I hoped so, he seemed to lose something of himself in that warehouse, more than just the control he had over his bloodlust.

"Is that what's wrong with you?" It was blunt but I couldn't think of another way to say it.

"Yes and no." How annoyingly cryptic. "I hoped you wouldn't notice."

"The first night I saw you after Salus, you seemed different. Sometimes you hide it better than others." We might as well be honest with each other. He looked even more tense, but seemed to agree because he continued, "I feel like I've lost control. It's like being newly turned. All my senses are on fire, I can barely control my impulses. I can count the beats of your heart, and I can see the blood pulsating beneath your skin." His fangs were protruding over his lips and his eyes were more vampiric than ever. His breathing was heavy.

"Don't." I said firmly. I was not going to be bled by this man again.

"We're here."

I got out the car as quickly as I could. Marcus walked around to stand at my side; he seemed to have regained his limited composure. For now. He worried me, how long would it be before he was himself again?

We were in the right place alright, there was a full police cordon around a large crime scene. There were cameras, journalists and cops everywhere. This was not going to be easy. "You see the man with the blond hair?" Marcus asked me quietly.

"Uhuh?" I did see him. He had dark blond hair that had been obviously highlighted, he was overly muscular and wearing pretentious designer clothes. He looked like he was right in the middle of a mid-life crisis.

"You need to steal his ID."

"What? Are you crazy?" I half shouted. "How the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"Anna! Keep your voice down." Marcus implored in a harsh whisper. The vampire grabbed my arm and pulled me back from the crowd. "You can do it. Just make him believe you're attracted to him and when his guard is down, take it."

"You have got to be kidding." The thought of letting that guy touch me made my skin crawl.

"Sadly not." He really wasn't joking.

"I'll use the ID to talk to the officers get some details and then see the body." I left him standing beside the car without saying a word. I worked my way towards the police line waking as sluttily as I could manage. Luckily for me the, the sleazy detective was standing right beside the barriers.

"Excuse me detective…?" I said, my voice dripping with sexuality.

"Walters, Richard Walters. But you can call me Ric." He said flashing me a superbly creepy smile as he looked me up and down approvingly.

"Any chance I could have you for an interview, a private interview." My question was full of subtext; I internally judged myself.

"Well … I have to finish up here, but maybe we could meet for a late night drink… my place?" he oozed desperation.

"Sure, see you later officer." He winked at me. He actually winked at me. Ick. He gave me a business card and I left.

I walked slowly back to Marcus, he had stayed by the car, sensibly avoiding the crowd. He smirked as soon as he saw me; clearly he had heard the whole conversation. "I judge myself." I said screwing up my face. "That's ok I judge you too." I punched him lightly on the arm. "I hate you, I really do."

He laughed without much humour, "That has been apparent for a while now. Come on we better go get you to "Ric's" apartment." He looked like something was bothering him, but I couldn't think what; he had gotten what he wanted.

"Great."

We gave the detective half an hour to get home and freshen up. He lived in an expensive looking private housing complex. All the gardens were huge and well-manicured; this was the kind of place that owned a gardener. The house looked very well kept from the outside but I was willing to bet it was more like a bachelor pad within. We parked a small while away so that the detective would not see Marcus in the car. "I have a new plan." I said before I stepped out of the car. "I distract the creep and you steal his morgue ID." Distract I could do, steal I wasn't so sure about.

"Alright, I guess it's only fair I get my hands dirty too."

"As long as you mean that figuratively."

He raised an eyebrow, then replied, "I promise, I won't kill anything."

I walked ahead a few paces so it looked like we weren't together. When I reached the detectives driveway, there was an expensive red convertible sports car with chrome everything parked outside. Methinks the detective is compensating for something. I walked up the driveway to the front door, the detective opened it before I had a chance to knock, he must have been watching me through the window. He was keen…Great. "Hello, won't you join me in the living room?" fake charm, just what a girl wants. I followed him through deliberately leaving the front door open for Marcus. As soon as I entered the living room he pulled me into his arms and began to kiss me. It was terrible, he was way too handsy and his kissing technique was disgusting. He made my skin crawl.

The living room was as I had expected, everything was made of black leather or dark brown wood. It was a sleazy bachelor pad. It even had a bear skin rug in front of a fake coal fire.

After 10 minutes or so I had had enough, this was advancing in a direction I was not willing to follow . Surely Marcus, being a vampire, had had enough time to get what he needed; so I said, "Ok, that's quite enough of that!" I pushed him off me and stood up. "I… what? Where do you think you're going?" He was surprisingly aggressive. "Home." I said firmly, "I've changed my mind." I crossed to the living room door but before I could reach out for the handle he grabbed my arm painfully tight. "It doesn't work that way, you came here on your own and you're not leaving until I get what I want."

"yes, I am." I said wrenching my arm out of his grasp.

"No. No you're not." He grabbed me and threw me against the wall. He pressed himself against me and began to kiss my neck. I felt sick.

Suddenly the weight was gone and I saw that from nowhere, Marcus had appeared. The vampire had the detective by the neck. "When a lady says 'No' she means it." Marcus looked terrible again, close to the edge. He kept hold of the detective and squeezed the his neck until he passed out. He dropped his body unceremoniously on the bear skin rug.

"Just in time." I said with a weak smile, pulling myself to my feet.

"As ever." Marcus stated.

"Thank you. Again." He just nodded.

Marcus took me straight home with the promise he would go to the morgue the same night and be back to tell me what he had found. "Are you alright?" he asked as we pulled up beside my building.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks to you."

"I promised I would keep you safe. I'll be back soon."

I showered and ate while Marcus was away. In his absence I had time to think. I was pretty sure I didn't hate him anymore. I found I just couldn't; especially when all he seemed to do these days was to make sure I was safe. I didn't trust him, and I couldn't forgive him or forget what he did, but I couldn't hate him either. I was annoyed at myself for softening to him, but when someone has saved your life on several occasions, you can't really hate them.

My pondering couldn't last long however, as the vampire returned barely over an hour later. He had let himself into the apartment; I hadn't known he was there until he stepped into the living room. I was surprised to find I didn't mind.

"Find anything?" I asked instantaneously.

"It was the same girl. But she wasn't the way I left her. She was mutilated after she died and dumped outside." He said looking worried

"So someone actually dug her up? Why? Are they trying to frame you? Me or Garret and Alistair?" I asked. I was worried too, I was in over my head and I knew it.

"Well they already tried to frame you, and I'm sure they managed to frame Alistair. Where else could he be? So I guess this one was targeted at me or Garret. What I can't figure out is why? What are they hiding? They're going to extreme lengths to destroy us. But for what reason?" he was pondering out loud more than asking me for answers.

"Maybe Alistair found something out. Maybe the council have a secret and maybe we should find out what that is. If for nothing else than to make sure Garret is ok."

"Maybe we should… for Garret." He sounded something… jealous maybe?


	13. Chapter 13

13

Several days had passed since Marcus had visited the morgue; he had remained in my apartment ever since. A constant reminder of the danger outside but an ever present protector. He had taken on the role of guardian angel or was it more like guardian devil? I could never decide. Either way, according to him, his soul purpose was to keep me safe. I didn't really mind the company, Lilly was out of town with Tyler and hadn't said when she was going to be back. I wasn't surprised those two had hit it off, there was an obvious attraction from the get go.

I still couldn't quite bring myself to trust Marcus fully, I was too cynical and I knew better than that. For the moment however I did believe he meant me no harm. I was sure he hadn't only stayed to keep me safe. To me he seemed lonely, a constant outsider even in his own world. His lack of control made him dangerous and I knew that, I also knew the day would come when he would lose it again; it seemed it was just in his nature. But for now at least he was my buffer against loneliness and the dangers of the big bad world.

It felt like I hadn't done anything 'normal' in ages; like I had put my human life on hold. I had been so consumed with the bar and the haven, that I had forgotten how wonderfully simple life had been before I knew what was really out there. So I decided, today was going to be a human day, strictly normal human behaviour and normal human activities.

I got out of bed feeling wonderfully refreshed. It was about 11am, I had had a brilliant deep sleep and I felt good. I sat up, through the convers of myself and got out of bed; all the while being careful not to step on Marcus who had apparently decided to sleep on the floor today. I suppose it was easier to keep the bedroom dark than it was the living room. Sidestepping the fact that sidestepping a sleeping vampire wasn't exactly 'normal human behaviour', I set about my morning routine. I showered, dressed, applied make-up and ate breakfast, all in the space of an hour; after that I was ready to go. I had decided that I was going to meet my friend Alison for lunch. We met at our favourite little café, Argento's, which was situated right in the city centre which made it perfect when you planned to go shopping after, which we did. Argento's was part of a large strip mall, which was comprised mostly of beautiful clothes stores. Alison and I went into them all. In one I found the most beautiful dress I had ever seen; it was dark green and strapless. It had a slim A-line beaded bodice that was tight fitting all the way to the hips before it flared out almost like a fishtail style. It had a slit at the side and I loved it. I had no idea when I would ever where it but I bought it anyway, I would find an occasion if it killed me.

We had been out for hours and just I was starting to feel like your average person again, my phone rang. I excused myself from Allison and moved away so she couldn't hear the conversation.

"No vampires allowed." I said to Marcus before he had a chance to speak, he laughed.

"…I'm still in your house." The vampire stated.

"Ok, no vampires allowed until I get home." I was being silly now but hey, I was having a good day. Why shouldn't I have a little fun?

"Luckily for you, until you get home, I am not a vampire. But I did find out something that could potentially be interesting." He was humouring me.

"oh?"

"A pack of werewolves. For some reason they have been able to avoid the wrath of the council for years. They must know something" He sounded proud of himself.

"I though werewolves generally didn't move in packs?" I asked. Marcus hadn't lied; it was interesting.

"Me too. In fact the only pack I have ever met was Alastair's and even then, it's hardly a pack; there's only 3 of them left, assuming Alistair is still alive." He said conversationally. "Can you meet me at the bar in a couple of hours? We can talk more then." He hung up before I had a chance to ask any questions. I wanted to know all about Alistair's pack and about Garret's role in it. For now however I was going to enjoy my dinner with Allison.

A couple hours and an amazing calzone later, I was back in the car and on my way to Garret's. When I arrived, the bar was full of people, talking, laughing, dancing and standing at the bar waiting to be served. I waved at David who was tending bar tonight and moved to the only free table, a small booth near the dance floor. People were milling around everywhere, I was glad to see the bar was still going strong. I hoped everyone else felt as proud of our achievement as I did.

My wait for Marcus wasn't a long one, he arrived a mere 15 minutes after I did. Sliding into the booth and sitting opposite me, Marcus took off his jacket before asking, "How was your day with your friend?"

"Good. It was fun to pretend I'm a normal person." I smiled

"You are a normal person; you just happen to associate with non-normal persons." He was completely serious. It was so easy to forget sometimes how old Marcus was until he said something odd or old fashioned. I didn't know exactly how old the vampire was but I was willing to bet it was in triple digits. "So, it sounds like you have had a productive day, but first, tell me about Garret's pack."

"Alistair's pack." He corrected. "Alistair's the Alpha not Garret. What do you want to know?" his tone was clipped.

"Everything. What did you mean there are only three left?" I asked my voice brimming with curiosity. "Who are they? What happened to the others?" I was getting carried away.

"There were five, two died. They are all brothers, were all brothers. Dylan was killed by a hunter; he turned his girlfriend into a werewolf. She was willing, but it's still against our laws, so they took their retribution. It's plausible they are trying to frame Alistair for the same thing, he must know something. James was killed because he tried to get revenge. It was stupid, he should have known better than to challenge the council. One man, werewolf or not, could never stand a chance against them." He gave me the cliff notes, speaking quickly. I noted that he showed no emotion when talking about the murder of Garret's family. Whenever I thought we could be friends he would do something that would remind me of how different we were. How could he speak so plainly about something that had so badly effected someone he classed as a friend?

"What about the other brother?" I said icily.

"Mason is Mason. He mostly keeps to himself. I haven't seen him since Alistair disappeared, but he has been in contact with Garret." He had become monotone as he always did when he sensed that I was annoyed.

"Wait, have _you_ been in contact with Garret?" I said a little too loudly, the loiterers nearest to us looked our way.

"Yes. He was the one who told me about the other pack" Said Marcus in a hushed angry tone. His expression made it clear that he wanted me to be quiet.

"Were you ever planning on telling me this?" I accused in a harsh whisper.

"I just did." He retorted.

"Every time I think I can trust you, you show me how wrong I am." I said angrily

"I am a vampire, Anna. I lie and I keep secrets. It's how I survive."

Without warning I stood up and walked away from the table. "Anna! Anna! Where are you going?" Marcus shouted after me in the kind of tone you chastise a toddler with. I made no reply.

I knew my car was parked right outside the bar but I needed to walk my anger off. For a couple minutes I walked huffily along the street until I could feel my anger ebbing away. As I walked, I realised that not only was I annoyed at Marcus, I was hurt by the fact Garret hadn't contacted me as well. I felt the presence of someone behind me, turning I said, "Go away Marcus." but there was no one behind me. When I looked back at the street ahead I could see a figure looming in the darkness. I would have been petrified if I hadn't know it was the vampire.

"What do you think you're doing? Wandering off alone." He shouted, walking towards me. "What were you thinking?"

"Leave me alone Marcus!" I turned on my heel and began walking in the opposite direction, back to my car. Before I had gotten very far he was in front of me again.

"What's wrong with you?" he shouted raising his hands to the sky, he was angry now too.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I shouted taking a step backwards.

"What?" he shouted back.

"Why didn't you tell me you had heard from Garret?" We were have a supernatural domestic in the middle of the street. Brilliant.

"Why do you care?"

"What do you mean why do I care? This whole thing started because we wanted to find Garret. He is our friend. I care about him."

Marcus opened his mouth to reply then closed it again. His fangs were out and I could see he was shaking; He let out an exasperated sigh and then vanished.

Feeling stupid and confused I walked the lonely way back to my car. I knew our fight wasn't really about lies or deceit; it was about Garret. Before he left to search for his brother, Garret had all but told me he had feelings for me and for a while now I had suspected that Marcus was starting to feel the same way about me. The problem was I had no idea how I felt about either man. Garret was smart, handsome, funny, sexy and he made me feel safe. I knew I could trust him, he was a good friend; but that was just it, he was a friend. I didn't know if I could or even if I wanted to make the leap from friends to more. But I would have been lying if I said that the thought had not crossed my mind once or twice.

Marcus, on the other hand, was also smart, handsome, funny and sexy. But he was dangerous too and unpredictable. He made me so angry sometimes, but he also made me feel passionate. I didn't trust him and he didn't make me feel safe and pathetic as it was that's what made him attractive to me, the unknown, the danger, the fact I never had any idea what could happen next. At the same time he seemed to be willing to risk everything to protect me.

By the time I actually reached my car I was confused, tired and more than a little annoyed. I had no idea how I felt about Garret or Marcus so I decided there was no point in trying to choose between them; especially as Garret wasn't even here. I leant forward to unlock my car door, and while looking in the window I found that the vampire was sitting in my front passenger seat. I sighed, got in the car and fastened my seat belt. We sat in silence for a moment or two before Marcus said in his most calm voice, "Do you still want to come with me to find the wolf pack?"

"Where are they?"

We drove for a while awkwardly avoiding each other's gazes but finally I had to ask, "Why didn't you tell me that you knew where Garret was? And that he's ok."

"We're not looking for Garret anymore."

"Marcus…" I began.

"Look, I'm sorry. I should have told you I just…" he trailed off.

"Just what?"

Silence. Again. We drove for over an hour, right out of the city and into the wooded areas far outside it, where the roads were thin, winding, rocky and dangerous. It was still pitch black out and I could barely see the road ahead, though I could tell it was framed by old eerie trees. I pulled into a small layby on the side of the road and we both got out of the car. Marcus indicated with his hand that we needed to follow the trail a head so I pulled my flashlight out of my trunk and started off down the path, Marcus following closely behind. We walked for a further forty minutes or so before I began to be able to hear voices up ahead, Marcus must have been able to hear them for a while now, but apparently we weren't speaking. Not long after I began to hear the voices, I could see what looked like the flickering of torch light from a clearing up ahead. Suddenly Marcus grabbed my arm and turned me around, I was about to speak, to question him, before he put his finger to my lips warning me to keep silent. I could hear it too now; the rustling of leaves and the snapping of twigs under approaching feet. I heard growling before I saw lupine figures slinking out of the darkness towards us. I knew we were surrounded long before I could see the glowing eyes that encircled us.

"How dare you come to this place vampire?" said a menacing voice in a growl. "we have no business with your kind."

"I came for information and aid. Nothing more." Marcus was on the defensive. We both knew full well that there far more of them than there were of us and should things go badly, we had absolutely no chance of surviving the encounter.

"Ahh and you bring the human as an offering?" the same voice leered

"No." said Marcus sharply; grabbing my hand and pulling me close to him.

We were most definitely in the company of wolves now.


	14. Chapter 14

14

"Marcus, we need to go." I pleaded with the vampire, tugging on his hand like a frightened child.

"I know." He whispered back, squeezing my hand reassuringly. It was fake, he was worried, I could tell. "We should not have come here. I see that now and I apologise. My companion and I will take our leave." He bowed his head and stepped back as he spoke, a sign of respect. He was showing the wolves that he meant them no harm, he was submitting. "Oh I think not, I would rather like to know how it is you found us. And we are always looking for new members." I couldn't see his face, but I could tell that the wolf was eyeing me over Marcus's shoulder. "You will not touch her." Marcus breathed. Although he wasn't facing me, I could tell from the way his demeanour changed that Marcus was letting his vampire side show.

There was a shift in the air, the wolves became restless and from the way Marcus moved, I could tell he was readying himself. Seconds later I heard it too, I realised what had alerted the supernaturals surrounding me; something was moving our way. I could hear the sound of snapping twigs and rustling leaves as an oppressive darkness approached us. "What have you brought down upon us vampire? RUN!"

The wolves scattered into the trees, running as fast as they could. "Anna c'mon!" Marcus shouted, pulling me forward and forcing me to run. The sounds of fighting punctuated the silence of the night, threatening growls, shouts of triumph and screams of pain. We ran, darting through the trees, jumping over logs, ducking under branches and avoiding the pools of water that the recent rain had left. It was so dark I could barely see the ground my feet landed on. I came to a complete and sudden halt at a rocky outcrop, I had no idea when he had let go of my hand, but I was definitely alone now. "Marcus? Where are you? Marcus?" I called to the darkness as loudly as I dared, but no one replied. I was totally alone in a forest full of werewolves among other things. I felt fear twist a knot in my stomach, my chest tightened; panic was rearing up inside me. I paused, I couldn't afford to do this, not here and not now, if I panicked I was dead.

Gathering my wits about me, I began feeling my way along the outcrop in front of me. My hands ran over rough stone covered with moss, my fingers finding only cracks in the rock until finally, I found an absence of stone. I had found a small cave; I thought I would probably be safer inside it rather than out in the open. On the other hand there was no accounting for what could be inside the cave. It was pitch black and bare; there was not even the smallest hint of light once I entered it. I groped around in the dark feeling my way along the passage way. I had to be very careful with my footing; I had no intention of falling down a massive hole in the ground.

I had no idea how long I was in the cave or what was happening in the woods outside, but eventually I began to see the faintest glimmers of light. I realised with relief I would soon be out in the open again. While it might be more dangerous, the pitch-black nothing of the cave was far more unnerving than the creeping dark of the forest. The opening in the cave was miniscule; the continued sounds of fighting greeted me as I squeezed myself through the small gap. Whatever was happening wasn't over yet. The further away I stepped from the cave the louder the sounds became; I was beginning to think I had stumbled onto the heart of the commotion. I was so unbelievably out of my depth.

I wandered slowly and carefully through the trees doing my best to be as preternaturally silent as I knew Marcus could be. I was practically holding my breath as I wound my way through the woods. The unmistakable sound of running reached my ears and whether or not whoever was chasing me or fleeing from something else, they were definitely coming this way. Thinking fast, I sprinted forward and nestled myself deep within the boughs of an immeasurably large tree. The footsteps grew closer and slower as the creature settled in to a walk, I could almost feel it sniffing the air. It was after me alright. I drew slow shallow breaths as I sat concealed in the tree roots trying desperately not to move a muscle. It had been a good plan, but I could tell from the sounds of circling feet that I had been discovered.

Suddenly hands found me and dragged me forth from my hiding place. "It's a bad night to be human in this forest" said a beautiful yet terrifying female wolf.

"I'm starting to see that," I replied, humourlessly. She drew her hand up and brought the back of it down across my face. Great, this was going to be a literal bitch fight.

I fell to the ground, a ripe bruise surely blossoming already across my cheek bone. She lifted her foot to kick at me but I managed, just barely, to scramble out of her reach and to my feet. The wolf lunged forward grabbing my neck and pushing my back against the nearest tree. I could feel her hands crushing my windpipe and I was already starting to feel the effects of it. I kneed her as hard as I could in the stomach, the shock of the blow surprised her and she released me. She doubled over momentarily trying to catch her breath, I jumped on the opportunity. I grabbed the nearest thing I could find, which happened to be a large pointed stone, and brought it down on the back of her head. She yelped in pain as she fell to the ground. I took my chance to run, but she grabbed my ankle. I fell to the ground too, she used my leg to claw her way towards me. I did the only think I could think of and I kicked out hard, catching the wolf in the chest, she was winded but she kept coming. I kicked out again, but this time I caught her in the temple. The blow knocked her unconscious and her head dropped to the ground.

I wrestled my leg free of her grip and clambered to my feet. I was shaking from head to toe; I couldn't believe that I had taken down a werewolf. Granted I hadn't done it with much grace, but I had done it. I searched her unconscious body and came up with exactly what I was looking for; she had had a knife tucked into her boot. I took it and ran.

I felt slightly ashamed that I was proud of myself, but for once no one had rescued me. I had protected myself and it felt good. I set off again. I had no idea where I was going, I had been turned around so many times that I hadn't a clue where the road was. That being said, I couldn't just sit around and wait to be attacked again; I had to at least attempt to find the car. I figured that if I kept moving I would find the road eventually or at the very least I would find a way out of this forest.

It could have been minutes, it could have been hours but I found myself without a sense of time as I wandered around fumbling in the dark. It wasn't long however before I was being pursued again.

Once again I hid myself behind the nearest tree, but this time I stood upright, this time I was ready. I grasped the knife I had scavenged from the she-wolf tightly in my right hand and listened. I could hear the cautious footfalls of my assailant and I waited with baited breath for them to get close enough for me to strike. I felt oddly like a predator awaiting its prey, maybe I was gaining an insight into what it was like to be a vampire. One more step and they were close enough for me to pounce. I sprung out from my willowed hiding place and without even pausing to blink drove the knife, hilt deep, into the chest of the man who had been following me. He let out a pained cry and backed away breathing heavily for a moment before dropping to all fours.

My heart skipped a beat and my breath caught in my chest as I looked at the writhing figure before me, this was no wolf – it was Marcus.

The vampire rolled onto his back clutching the knife that protruded from his chest. He coughed and spluttered and when he finally looked at me his eyes widened in shock. "Anna?!" he looked confused, but it passed quickly as he coughed again and let out a howl of pain. I dropped to my knees beside him "Marcus I'm sorry! I had no idea it was you! Marcus what do I do!?" I spoke quickly, fear and worry making my voice crack. He cried out loudly again, "Pull it out!" he growled.

"What?! No… I can't!" I was panicking. He coughed again spattering blood across my front. "Anna! You have to. You did this, you fix it! Now pull it out!" he shouted at me baring his fangs. I took a deep steadying breath, gripped the handle of the knife firmly and pulled it out in once quick motion. Marcus let out one last roar of pain before he fell back into the undergrowth, unconscious.

Well fuck! What was I supposed to do now? I couldn't leave him here, he'd surely be killed. But I couldn't stay here to guard his lifeless form or I would surely be killed. I shook the vampire roughly, "Marcus! Marcus? Wake up! Now is not the time for a nap, so wake the fuck up!"

He stirred. The vampire opened his eyes; they were that horrible orange that I knew to mean I was looking at a vampire and nothing more. That orange meant that at this moment Marcus was pure predator with not a trace of his human side to be found. Unresponsive to reason and deadly.

Marcus sat up straight eerily, like Dracula out of his coffin. He turned his head robotically toward me and growled an low threat. I stood up slowly and backed away, the way you do when you are trying not to startle a wild animal. Faster than I could see Marcus was on his feet and standing so close to me I could feel his cold breath on my face. I backed away slowly but found my path blocked by a large tree. The vampire pinned me against it just by standing in front of me. He leaned in close, if I was in a vampire movie I would have thought it was to kiss me, but I wasn't. The vampire's intentions were much more sinister. He brought his hand up my face and forced it to the side before lowering his mouth to my neck. I felt the sharp sting as his teeth pierced my soft flesh and the draining feeling as he began to drink. I punched and scratched at his chest but it had no effect. I kneed him in the stomach, again nothing. I made to knee him again but instead of catching his stomach I caught his groin. Predator or not that still hurt apparently. He backed away standing with his hands on his knees, the respite was momentary however before he moved forward again. I mustered all the force I could and punched him dead in the face. I felt his nose break beneath my fist and saw the crimson river of blood flow down his face to mingle with the drying blood on his chest. My hand hurt like a bitch, it was never as easy as the movies made it out to be.

Marcus stopped dead in his tracks and blinked as if waking up. "Anna? Oh no... Anna I'm so-" he began but I cut him off.

"No time! We have to go!" I was sure that just like sharks, werewolves could smell blood and between the two of us, we might as well have painted a neon sign in blood above our heads saying "we are here!"

Marcus didn't need telling twice. He grabbed my hand and we began to run; it wasn't long before he stopped again. "What?" I said with tired exasperation. I felt like this hellish night would never end.

"Someone's coming. Keep running the road is that way," he gestured off into the trees. "Once you hit it, you should be safe. I will find you soon."

"I'm not leaving you here!" I told him angrily.

"You have to! You're in more danger with me than you are alone! Did you forget what just happened?" I tried to interrupt him but he kept talking. "For Christ sake run!" he pushed me away from him. I knew I couldn't argue, it was just wasting time, so I did as he bade me and ran.

Once again I was running for my life, in the direction Marcus had indicated. I was reminded absurdly of Ellie in Jurassic park running through the woods away from a Velociraptor. I had to admit, right at this moment, it seemed to me that our situations were equally dire.


End file.
